Homo Novus Prime
by ForrestersWitch
Summary: What if Sheldon really is the first Homo Novus Male? Better yet what if Penny is the first Homo Novus female? Penny is not what she's been pretending to be on so many levels. Thanks to genetics Sheldon's in for a bumpy ride! Revised rated M for future chapters. Definite AU and OOC
1. Chapter 1

**Homo Novus Prime Ch. 1 **

**I Love The Characters of Sheldon and Penny.**

**As for the Show TBBT I own nothing.**

**AU and some OOC.**

**P-POV**

**Penny was an early bloomer at least that's what her family called her (not that big of a deal in a family of early every things).**

**When she decided to walk she just got up and did it, at nine months old. When she wanted her momma who was in the other room, she called for her "Momma I wanna go!" She was nine months old. When her Nana snatched her up from the playpen so abruptly, Penny was startled... her Nana's concerned surprise scared her so that she didn't speak a whole sentence again for 3 more months. The picture of Nana's face in that moment was etched in her infantile mind and associated with being "Suddenly" noticed.**

**She didn't like the feeling of such intense scrutiny and learned to avoid those looks for most of her childhood and teens by emulating those around her.**

**Karen, her mother, came to see the commotion with her mother in law and youngest but had not heard Penny and just put it down to a great-grand mother's pride.**

**Since every generation of McGill's were early bloomers, Penny's early walking was noted but relatively unapprised. After all her older sister Kylie had started walking at 11 months old and in Karen's proud mind what was two months less? **

**From then on she watched what her siblings and cousins did and copied them. She learned to slow down, to match their mental and physical pace. Her familial contemporaries outpaced the other kids at school and out on the playground. It wasn't out of the ordinary that she surpassed her classmates because that was expected from her family's background and standing in the community.**

**Penny strove not to bring undue attention to herself but Nana always seemed to be watching her. She loved her Nana but she always felt uneasy around her. When she showed that she had the same affinity and lack of fear for animals as he did, Penny's father Wyatt started training her for the Junior Rodeo. She was nine. **

**His only son Junior was into sports and animal art. He loved to draw animals but playing or working with them was sooo not his thing. Penny was Wyatt's "Little Slugger" and he adored her. She was fearless. There didn't seemed to be an animal she couldn't work with or get the upper hand on. When Junior showed no interest Wyatt taught her how to rebuild the tractor engine and, two weeks later, when she got the neighbors tractor up and running his pride grew further still. She was twelve. **

**Life on the prosperous family farm was loaded with chores and family participation in local and state fairs, 4H events and cattle auctions. There are 4 living generations and a passel of kids of all ages. Her Great grandma, her grandparents and their four grown children with their spouses and kids all lived and worked on the 5000 acres. McGills were known in their area of Nebraska as "the salt of the earth", good people. The McGill's, of either sex, where all healthy, strong and capable of what they put their minds and hands to.**

**An inherent ability to know who and what suited her best grew from watching everyone and her surroundings and herself control grew as she strove to fit in.**

**From a toddler, through school and 4H and her junior rodeo stint right up until now she always knew who or what she'd work well with. She always felt "a connection, a sense of rightness with her environment and the living beings in it. Penny had a loving and soothing presence to all around her. She was mischievous and playful to those of her social circle and polite to those who weren't. She had somewhat of a temper and nothing got it going faster than injustice or meanness. Anyone or thing that Penny cared for she thought of as hers…. and woe to anyone or thing that harmed or abused what was hers.**

**Despite her mostly open and loving nature, Penny was highly selective about her inner social circle. At home her mom and sisters called her "Picky Penny". She'd been called a "tease" or an "ice princess" by most of the guys she'd dated but it didn't matter. If he wasn't the one, he wasn't the one, and Penny wasn't one to be forced by names or words to change her course. Her Nana called her a chameleon. She just knew Penny was hiding how smart she was and told her she ought to be an actress.**

**When she was ready to get over her virginity she picked Kurt. He was a big and muscular and hot, and when she looked at him she just knew. She also knew that he'd be the one to move to Pasadena with so she could be an actress. He was a learning experience, 5 yrs older than her and a great teacher in bed but there wasn't much going on upstairs and, once she learned all she could, she let his cheating alter her course to being on her own. That's when she moved to 4b at 2311 N. Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena, California.**

**It really only took the first date with Leonard to let Penny know what she pretty much knew beforehand but he'd been so sweet and earnest she couldn't turn him down. But it was what it was and in the end they were friends. She quickly made a place for herself with her neighbors in 4a. She didn't see the need to inform them that they were hers and under her protection. She soon added Raj to her bailiwick and to a lesser degree, Wolowitz. Why bother them with the details? She knew it and that was the important part.**

**With auditions and working at The Cheesecake Factory Penny kept pretty busy. It helped her evade Leonard's not so silent crush, and pay the bills, barely. A couple of years had flown by when the chance for Sheldon's String theory research had all four boys heading down to the Arctic Circle for 3 months.**

**When she took them to the Airport in Mid-May it was with a heavy heart and a sad smile.**

**"Don't forget to pick up the mail and sort it in chronological order and please open the windows and air out the apartment twice a week." Sheldon handed her the keys to 4a.**

**"Check,check" she takes the keys,"and check!" she says with a smile.**

**"I think she's got it Sheldon. You've only told her every day for 2 weeks, not to mention you gave her that laminated 'To Do List' last night." Leonard said condescendingly. Leonard was tired of always having to maneuver around Sheldon and his OCD to get to Penny. Why couldn't he just leave him and Penny alone? And why was she always nice to Sheldon? Sure it was fun to watch Penny push Sheldon's buttons but she was the first one to put Leonard or Howard in their place if they were less than patient with him. Then again she hadn't lived with Sheldon for seven years either.**

**Penny knew that Leonard was still upset because she turned down his request for a last hurrah in the sack before leaving for 3 months. She was relieved and sad all at once that they were going.**

**"Hey, don't hog Penny" Howard says as he reaches out to her for a hug/grope good bye.**

**"That's not a hug! That's my ass your grabbing!" Penny nailed Howard in the arm and he yelped and laughed as he tried and failed to jump out of the way of the oncoming punch.**

**Penny turned to Raj. "Try and keep them from killing each other, will you?" Then she kissed him on the cheek and laughed. He blushed giving her a nod and a wink. "I'll have a grasshopper waiting for you when you get back" Penny hugged her arms to herself as she said "I'm going to miss all of you, but I'll hold the fort 'til you get back. I've got your e-mails and you can text right?"**

**"Texting maybe iffy but we can send and receive e-mails" piped up Howard from the other side of Raj, while Leonard added with a nod, "we'll let you know when we get there". He hugged her hard and she had to push away before he let go.**

**"Good Lord!" Sheldon quipped. "We're going to miss the plane if we stand around here any longer pacifying Penny's need for drama!"**

**"Yep" she said popping the "p". "I'll miss you to, Moonpie" **

**"He's right though, you guys better get a move on." She reached up on tip toe and gave Sheldon a quick peck on one cheek as she pat the other one. "Don't worry Sheldon. Everything here will be just as you left it, waiting on your return"**

**Sheldon reached up to grab at Penny's hand with exasperation, "Penny, Please, I postulate that you find yourself sad due to our departure and your approaching loneliness... but that still is no reason... to... invade... my personal space!" He gave her hand a squeeze and didn't let go until the end of his luke warm rant.**

**The other three didn't notice, they were used to Sheldon and Penny's bickering and they were gathering up what gear to carry on the plane. So they don't see Sheldon turn pink or the thoughtful and surprised look Penny was giving him.**

**"Call me, and let me know when to come get you." She waved until they passed through the gate and down the corridor out of sight, boarding the plane.**

**She woke up later that night startled out of a dream-memory of the look in Sheldon's eyes while he held her hand. It was only for a moment but he didn't toss her hand down. He held it and squeezed it gently. What the hell? There was no bite to his words and his eyes... his eyes were puzzled and startled and she could swear he looked confused.**

**LPOV**

"**Damn it Sheldon" Leonard thought spitefully. Now the last picture of Penny in his head included that lanky know it all. She wasn't smiling down at him but up into Sheldon's face….. Touching Sheldon's hands… Making Sheldon blush…. He wasn't so sure any more about the last part. Sheldon was asexual. He didn't react to women though they reacted to him. Women and undergrads at Caltech (albeit psychos) flocked to him. **

**'Including Penny!' whispers the mean little voice in his head.**

**"arghhhhhhh"**

**"Do you have any idea how much stress planes are repeatedly subjected to, with the increase and decrease of air pressure on the structure from within and without?" Sheldon randomly freaking wondered out loud. God…how long was this flight again?**

**Howard interrupted him, "Hey Sheldon, We know that you have an IQ of 187 but I'm an engineer. It's my job to know these things and both Raj and Leonard can also run the data and do the math...**

**Sheldon sliced his hand down in front of Leonard towards Howard effectively cutting him off. **

**"And yet you all still fly..."**

**"You cannot take a train to the Arctic, Sheldon. This is the only route there is to get you to your samples and data" Raj interjected.**

**Why had they signed on to this expedition? Was it Prestige? To have the honor of their names being associated with the GREAT Sheldon Lee Cooper PhD, PhD, Ma, ad nausum? He hated to admit it but, Sheldon was truly a genius' genius and it was common knowledge that Caltech wanted the Kudos of associating and sponsoring a future Nobel laureate.**

**Leonard wandered if Howard brought a few bottles of his mother's Valium,'...ah damn... the things he would do for a little scientific recognition.**

**SPOV**

_**Three weeks into the expedition and my excitement should know no bounds, it has ever been thus when intellect is seduced by the allure to understand the unknown.**_

_**That being as it may I find my gratification, marred with as of yet unnamed ailment. Symptoms include aching joints, restlessness and ill humor with bouts of insomnia. I thought at first I was experiencing stomach cramps, but increasing my intake of calories has exposed said symptom as hunger pangs. My REM's cycles are interrupted by intense sexually charged dreams and on three occasions night emissions have occurred. I am unable to give the physical matter to much contemplation as most of my focus is on my research.**_

_**June 12th, 2009**_

_**I awoke again from flashes of golden blond hair,nibbling lips, green eyes ,warm skin, phantom hands that roamed and though I've awoken spent again there is no satiation. There is just this unsatisfied predilection and a broken REM cycle. I have compartmentalized my sudden preoccupation with all forms of coitus and dare I say…. Penny. I have had to schedule time in the evenings 2hrs to meditate on these new and terrifying emotions. My eidetic memory bombards me with pictures and senses of her. I can feel her hand in mine as surely as if I held it this instant. I can smell her cherry blossom and almond lotion as if she was standing before me. I can hear voice as if she just called me Moonpie.**_

_**Every kindness, every little touch comes readily and unbidden to mind. Her irritating habits are interlaced with all of it. I used to think of Penny as a true and dedicated friend of worthy note. A very messy, very dramatic friend of worthy note. How can I go back to that now? It seems a…..romantic idea….. but for some reason Meemaw's favorite quote comes to me "never to be wasted the miracle of another human being". **_

_**Now as to why that quote surfaces... well, I'll leave that for future contemplation.**_

_**Through Kohlinar, I relive our farewell in order to comprehend and become one with these new emotions and sensations. I have thoroughly recounted this anomaly 2312 times and am no closer to sagacity than I started. I am having better results with my research on monopoles some promising data is becoming more prevalent and I may prove my theory sooner than I thought.**_

_**I've already begun to outline my premise and so I can get back to Pasadena where I believe I will find my answers... Good Lord! I have to have those answers I must be able to control myself. I've got to get hold of myself, my focus is fractured, only my intellect and my self-discipline will see me through to winning my Nobel Prize. I will not win it if reflections of Penny randomly intrude upon my awareness like this as I bend my intellect to proving String Theory.'**_

_**June 25th, 2009**_

_**'I am most pleased to report that I have had yet another quantum leap in thought and conclude that I must speak with Penny. She is the logical choice her being a self-proclaimed "Big Ole 5" and should be able to provide insights I lack in this area of my development. Upon reaching a solution I close this avenue of thought and remand myself over to calculating Maxwell equations while reconciling Dirac's monopole solution for half an hour hindered by a further lack of data. I must now bring myself to review new and unsettling data of my physical being. We have conducted the mandatory mid-term physicals and my results are disconcerting at best my premature death at worst. I must confess that at first I had thought that Leonard, Wolowitz and Koothrapali had been pranking me by shortening my pants and taking in the seams of the rest of my clothing. I was mistaken. I have gained 35lbs of muscle. I surmise that this is due to my workout regimen and physical exertion out on the field. There is also the increase in of calories mention previously. It's more than I expected but nothing can account for the two inches growth in height nor the added inch in length and 3/4 in girth of my penis. I related this confusing and distressing news to my Meemaw in an e-mail. I wouldn't want her to be struck low by my sudden demise, better to give her some warning.'**_

_**June 30th, 2009**_

**My Dearest MoonPie,**

**I know it sounds highly improbable but the symptoms you wrote in your last e-mail ... well, son, it sounds like you're going through puberty a second time. If the blood work doesn't show any pathogens, then I would remind you what your Papaw taught you about "Occam's Razor". Your great uncle Ezra remarked on something close to what you have told me a few family reunions ago. So I got hold him last night and gave him the low down on your check-up. He says the same thing happened to him about age 33. He didn't even have hair on his chest 'til then, that's right about when he met your Great Aunt Sarah. I had to change the subject Honey. He's taken to drinkin' since she past, so there's no tellin' how accurate his memory is. I would have put it down to a sweet old man's alcoholic story tellin but your news may point to it a family quirk. Try not to over think this, MoonPie. Hopefully you will let this piece of family trivia ease your mind a bit until you get back to the states for the full medical work up I know you'll insist on. your Mommas doin' fine and your sister, well you know your sister. She's keepin body and soul together and the drama that follows that child would give old Bill Shakespeare a run for his money. I love you, MoonPie, I've always known you're gonna change the world. I will talk to you soon. I've sent you a care package let me know when it arrives.**

**P.S.  
Honey, are you and Penny fussin' at each other again. I noticed you haven't mentioned her since you got down there. iffen you are, remember friendships need tendin' even when you're not there in body, She must be awfully lonely since you all packed up to the Arctic.**

**Head Hand & Heart  
All my love,  
MeeMaw.**

**HPOV **

**'It's not my imagination, Sheldon has gotten taller! His plaid pants are sitting above his ankles, and yesterday his khaki pants are too short. Even Sheldon doesn't wear high waters. Lately he has a secretive gleam in his eyes. I'm thinking he suspects us... He comes into the common area, stares at us like he's got something to say, just to abruptly turn back to his lab muttering under his breath... and what the hell is that about ... Sheldon articulates precisely, enunciating each syllable of every word so his intended victim has no doubts as to Sheldon's intent. He's too meticulous to have let his clothes shrink... my clothes all still fit...**

**I'm starting to regret going along with Leonard's plan to sabotage Sheldon's research by playing with the Can opener. Sheldon seems calmer thinking that this is proof his theory is correct but then he'll tear off and not be seen again until it's time for our scheduled experiments and then he's his old dictatorial self. I still think we could explain his death by exposure... Mother is nagging me from Pasadena... Better the devil you know ...hah... my tuchus out of the frying pan and into the fire... ahh here's Raj**

**"Hey Raj which way did Leonard go..."**

**"He saw Sheldon heading out. I think he's positioning himself by that blasted can opener again. You know there are not enough strikes that will make up for this when Sheldon finds out... and he will find out... Dude... I think he's been away from his routines and his 'spot' his programming has a glitch..." Raj's words come out rapid fire in his panic, "Dude we have to stop this or we're the ones that are going to be found dead by hypothermia and he's...**

**"RAJ" Howard shouted, breaking through Koothrapali's panic attack. "Look man, we can't back out now... first of all, Leonard will never allow it and second, I want more room to run when Sheldon is apprised of his false findings...**

**" Howard I do not want to be on Evil Sheldon's hit list... he's going to make us wish our grieving mothers never bore us... and did you see his test results from the mid-term physicals? According to the numbers, he's gained 35 lbs and has seemingly grown 2 more inches... like 6'2 wasn't tall enough... Leonard thinks it's a typo..."**

**Howard broke into Raj's rant "No man it isn't a typo, all his pants are to tight and to short and he's starting to look like The Hulk right before he splits the seams of his clothes! And I've got a theory about all this never ending day light coupled with the stronger magnetic field. It increases the Homo Novus male's size so that it fit's his enormous ego he can take over the world." Wolowitz grinned when he said it but his eyes belied his words.**

**'Dude, we are so screwed..." Raj pinched the bridge of his nose and said a small prayer.**

**"Oh, Lakshmi, Granter of all good luck... I beg you... please let my little brown butt get back to civilization in one piece and I will stop pestering you about my parents!"**

**I would like to thank all the fans that commented on my first two chapters!  
You all helped me realize that I wanted this tale to be better that what was first submitted. So here is the revision of Ch.1. Ch.2 is almost finished and Ch.3 has been a challenge but should be uploaded by the end of this week. I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting, I just thought you deserved better than mediocre!**


	2. Chapter 2

The McGill clan has been in Nebraska since the 1840's before it was a state. The family's original compound sits on the same 5000 acres since 1854.

The family has grown into a clan and they have holdings all over the state and far into the Dakotas. Though the family is greatly respected for their contributions to earth stewardship and subsequent charities they are mostly known in their small part of the world.

The family history is peppered with feats of great mental and physical prowess so much so that each successive generation takes it as common place.

Like the time Grandpa laid out his brother's prized bull with one punch when it was charging down on an unaware then 4yr old Wyatt McGill. There are many such stories and time for those later.

Great grandma Katy's people were from 1930's Kansas. The last 80 years of the family traditions has the addition of survival training and disaster preparations for the whole clan since the dust bowl scare!

It is considered a family quirk that the last four generations of McGill men don't marry until 35 yrs. of age or older.

Until they reach full maturity the males are long, tall, and gangly. Their appearance leading non familial local males to misjudge them on many levels especially pubescent testosterone powered challenges and general rowdiness. They are strong and wiry until they start bulking up in their late twenties early thirties.

Generations of blue ribbons and trophies from national, state and county rodeos and fairs stuff the McGill Clans shelves and attics full. Their breeding program is still superior and unmatched anywhere in the state.

Up until around thirty years of age the McGill males are goal oriented and sexual conquest is low on their list of important accomplishments. The teasing and ridicule from their classmates and peers seems to have strengthen McGill males resolve rather than having them capitulate to peer pressure. Not to say that they don't engage in sex it just isn't all encompassing to them like the other guys their age.

The females in this family group develop and mature faster than the males physically and mentally which serves them all of their long lives.

McGill females are intelligent beautiful compassionate, precocious, healthy athletic and very physical beings with natural ability to adapt. On the whole the McGill females and males show natural adeptness to whatever discipline they apply themselves. The girls compete with their brothers and cousins, soundly trouncing them physically all the way up to and some pass puberty (prior stage to MMSSP).

The attitude towards sex and procreation that the maturing pubescent males in the family maintain cannot be said of the female McGill. When puberty hits a McGill girl their physical awareness expands and becomes yet another way to interact with others and their environment.

Winnowing her way through her peer group, she looks for her future mate. The last statement is not implying that they are promiscuous but that puberty triggers a McGill female to inspect the local gene pool thoroughly for the best and brightest and then to move outward in this search for a suitable mate.

The approach to securing a mate is delineated by the sex of the Homo Novus in question. Penny finds sex to be highly pleasurable and still wanting at the same time. She is after all a McGill female.

The McGill male hit's about thirty years of age, husbandry and roots takes on a more intimate meaning than animals and crops.

When Karen joins the McGill Clan she is a very young biology teacher and names this quirk "The McGill Male Second Stage of Puberty" (little does she know how close to right she is). Her brother Tye, is a biologist, with a deep curiosity in genetics.

She's 27 when she meets and falls in love with 35yr old Wyatt McGill.

They have three children, the first a set of twins Wyatt Jr and Kylie

3 years later natural selection with the hard existence in which they lived on the family farm creates the perfect conditions for the genetic mutation that is the Homo Novus female.

The McGill clan produces their first Homo Novus female Penelope Raven McGill.

She is born aware. Her mothers' calm acceptance of the child birth process steadies and soothes the infant.  
Upon her expulsion from the womb, it is her own birth cry that startles her into silence. She instinctively focuses on the tactile and optic stimuli. She draws and receives comfort from her mother when placed across Karen's chest. Waves of reassurance and soothing calm encompass mother and child. She is empathic. She both feels and projects emotion.

The Homo Novus Infant has twice as many nerve endings along her skin as Homo sapiens infants do. This genetic adaptation facilitates her empathic abilities and any others that may develop.

As with all infants, she learns through observation, it is a hard wired instinct that serves Penny all her long life. It seems how each Homo Novus infant's unique and innate outlook correlates directly with how that genius intellect will manifest itself.

The McGill Clan all love the land and are raised to be true stewards so the natural abilities though abundant and profitable were focused on their Clans compound, holdings and other land management.

Being tested for intelligence? They figured you either were intelligent or you weren't who cares how much? This isn't arrogance on their part it just doesn't matter to them it, isn't how smart you are but what you do with the smarts you have.

Karen is both surprised and pleased to see Penny advancements but looks at James Jr and remembers him standing in the rib at 7 mos. while holding on to the bars of his crib and the females in this family group develop maturity faster than the males.

Natural selection and the hard existence in which they lived on the family farm create the perfect conditions for the genetic mutation that is the Homo Novus female.

Penny is the youngest of three.

Her mother, Karen, a college grad and teacher fosters her daughters the love of learning. "Look it up" being her mom's signature saying.

"Here's how... Now you do it," being her highly physical father's.

There's nothing that James sets his mind and body to that he can't accomplish. Economy of movement with intelligence is what attracted Karen to him in the first place. His big heart sealed her love for him.

Her brother, Wyatt Jr, from an early age, is artistic, abhors dirt and loathes animals. That he would rather be in the kitchen with his Gramm's seems to be an outright affront to their father. Kylee is sweetness and light loves her parents and "her" farm and most especially loves to hold being older than Penny all through childhood and his Lil' Slugger is a daddy's girl.

Puberty hit Lil' Slugger like a 12lb sledge hammer. Three weeks saw Penny change from a flat chested tom boy physique to a pair of C's, and a 22 inch muscular waist that complimented rounded hips that kept knocking into furniture and doorways. It took her weeks to grow accustomed to her new physique. Her Dad is still recovering from the shock of it ten years later.

**Since I've had revised the story I'll be adding a Primer for HNP. I believe it will cast light on the AU and OCC of the Characters. Please review it helps me keep the integrity and vision I've had for this fabrication.**


	3. Chapter 3

As stated earlier I own nothing of The Big Bang Theory I have no Beta and this is the first time I've ever written a story. Oh and it's rated M for language and future subject matter.

Ch. 3

PPOV

When Penny moved out to Pasadena, it was against her father's wishes. It was the need to flee his constant if unintended barrage of pain and sadness which ultimately led to the move. The rift caused by turning into a girl from his Lil Slugger had truly hurt him. Wyatt's fatherly fear for his daughter's innocence escalated with the progression of Penny's pubescent interest in boys and her sudden stubbornness in not seeing things his way. Years of being unable to communicate and the constant unintended emotional bombardment she had to endure in his presence finally culminated in her running. The Kurt fiasco, as she liked to think of it now, was decided in one emotional minute and the rest of that sad experiment is history. Her father, upon learning she left Kurt, had once again demanded that it was time for her to come back home. When he started hollering at her on the phone she realized that being over 1500 miles away helped. This time staying here was just for her and not out fear of feeling his emotional state. Intuition and intellect kept her from telling Kurt about her inheritance but anger at her father's lack of understanding had her moving in to the small apt and denying anyone's money.

Pride may have brought her to 2311 N. Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena, California but it was Sheldon that kept her there. Penny was just as protective of her inner self in her own way as Sheldon was of himself. She was never comfortable being so different or so much smarter than those around her. It wasn't until she acclimated to apt 4b that she realized the freedom of being on her own. She could learn whatever she wanted; do whatever she wanted and what shear dumb fucking luck it was to live next to geniuses. No elder scrutinizing her every move, no antagonism for her likes and dis-likes no one's jolting expectation hounding her every move.

She constantly kept up the street smart blonde college dropout act to keep anyone from seeing how different she truly is. Penny had a deep respect for her four "boys". They were nerds, geniuses, scientists and gamers, they were the guys that got tortured and beat up in high school, made outcast by their peers, labeled "other". Here as grown men, they made no excuse for being different, they may not have liked being different but, Penny sure admired their courage to be unchanged by others judgment. Three of her sweet nerd-amigos only saw the pretty blonde actress wannabe act and that was fine, it let her be herself more because she was safe behind her façade. When Leonard and Sheldon had exchanged emergency keys with her, her joy knew no boundaries; their treasure trove of knowledge was there for her perusal with no one the wiser. Her innate ability to feel others emotions gave her the ability to calm or escalate any given situation but her lack of direction and immaturity had led her willy-nilly until the past two years when Sheldon, the Boys and Physics had become her foremost studies.

Penny sat on the bed in Sheldon's Room surrounded in all things Sheldon. Freedom to be her true self and not "Street Smart Penny" reached through the pervading emptiness that Sheldon's departure left her in. In order to combat her loneliness, she was taking the time he was in the artic to continue her study of him.

This was the first time she had total access and time to go through his room. Penny's curiosity and seeming obsession overrode the taboo of invading his privacy. As she leaned back against his headboard she thought about everything that led her to being in love with Sheldon.

The attraction she felt for him that first day was instant and baffling. Never before had she felt anything like him. It's was automatic for Penny to get the emotional bead on anyone in a room with her. Where Leonard was friendly, hopeful with the beginnings of a crush, Sheldon was, for lack of better words, "on alert". His emotions were very controlled. To Penny, people had an emotional dialogue they were unaware of. Sheldon's emotional control registered to her empathy as "quiet ", empty spot emotionally where he eyes told her Sheldon was sitting . So when his OCD tendencies surfaced in the face of her sitting on his 0,0,0,0 spot on their couch, Penny was at a loss at what to think. As Sheldon went through the motions of looking for another seat as per Leonard's request Penny felt no emotion from him at all; which was so at odds with the flash of irritation she received upon her derriere touching that leather cushion. She had on occasion met people with OCD or Asperger's syndrome. Those few she'd met seriously pulsed with whatever stress they were caught in. Not so with Sheldon, even with the flailing limbs and the twitching tics, the initial flare of stress would be tamped down as she felt him struggled to control his emotions. These episodes were followed by his tightening the reins on his emotions while Penny focused calming energy at him. These momentary cracks in Sheldon's self-control showed her glimpses of how deeply Sheldon was capable of feeling and how fractured he feared himself to be.

From that first day, the enigma of Sheldon held her attention. Every day she was grateful for the serendipity of moving next door to the scientist. His constant vaunting of his own superior intellect at first amused her, then intrigued her, intrigued her enough to pick up a physics book and then another until now she could carry on an intellectually engaging conversation with any of "the Boys". Well, she could, if she wasn't constantly keeping a vapid expression on her face and trying to get a rise out of Sheldon. His Hypothesis of Homo Novus still made her giggle because she always looked for a name for her own weirdness and here Whackadoodle had found a name for his.

Before Los Robles, Penny, though affectionate, for understandable reasons was not a touchy feely person. Penny found herself reaching out with her actual hand and not just empathetically to Sheldon. Living in a world of emotions, Sheldon's ability to control his emotions left such a quiet space in Penny's purview as to find herself touching Sheldon against his said will, repeatedly. In order to learn her new friends but mostly to learn more about Doctor Beautiful Mind Genius Guy, she maintained the Ditzy neighbor act seemingly touching every one of the group randomly; everyone but Howard. Sitting next to Sheldon or messing with his Spot established a consistent and convenient base of operation. Until She met Sheldon and Leonard and through them Raj and Howard, Penny hardly ever projected her emotions. This new group of highly intelligent people required her to be on the top of her Chameleon Game. How could they be so childish and petty yet perceptive and accepting of each other's limitations and quirks? Interaction with her "boys", gave her new interests and seemed to heighten her emotive abilities, her touch soothes her friends, her playful taps convey happiness and it runs through the group, even Sheldon hasn't been immune. She found paint ball especially entertaining. Before Sheldon and the guys, Penny couldn't understand why any would spend so much time in front of a flat screen. Halo night was a real eye opener and though not as physical as hog tying, there was a visceral satisfaction in capping the enemy. She only halfheartedly pursues an acting career as her smoke screen wavers and her true feelings for Sheldon slowly come to the fore.

After two years, Sheldon is the first thought on her mind when she awakes and the last thought in her head before sleep claims her. The last real sex she had was with Kurt. The parade of guys her first six months of living there was to get the rise she was looking for out of Sheldon. The barbarians that filed in and then out of her apartment came looking for action and most left as soon as they figured out the limits of her companionship. These past three months had her dreaming of Sheldon every night. She worried about him up there in the artic. She worried he may have gotten used to her calming him and the group. He wouldn't be aware that she had quite literally calmed a great many of his bouts of "crazy".

Then there was Leonard and his neediness and his recent flares of jealousy. Penny may soothe the nerves of those around her but she had nothing for his jealousy but coolness. Now they were all in the artic with no buffer 24/7 for three months. It didn't take a genius or an empath to see where Sheldon's Perfectionism and Strict adherence to his schedule would drive the other three nuts. When she wasn't worrying about him her dreams waxed erotic and waking up gasping and aching for Sheldon was becoming a regular occurrence. Flashes of long fingers caressing her or lightly scratching her skin with pictures of his full supple lips kissing everywhere, his teeth biting along her sensitive neck…..

Penny's reminiscing is interrupted by her laptop. She set it up to chime whenever she received incoming artic emails. Sitting up and crossing her legs Indian style she pulls the laptop on to her knees.

Smiling, Penny's viridian eyes fall on the senders address at the top of the email.

'It's from Raj….'

**Sorry to keep you all waiting. I've been awake for more hours than I care to relay. Please, keep the reviews coming. You have all been so helpful and criticism has been constructive. I'm writing this as it comes to me. Chapter 4 will be a page of Homo Novus Primer. Here's hoping you enjoy!**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Email.**

_Dear Penny, 30/06/2009_

_ It is with sad tidings and a cry for help that I'm sending you this. I find that you are my only recourse to the situation that has escalated here. I'm sorry if this is rambling, but I have become somewhat disgusted at myself for how long it took me to come to this action._

_Attached you will find the technical data that will support the claims I'm about to relate to you. Dr. Gablehauser will understand the gravity of the situation. I'm sorry …. I'm ahead of myself but you will see…._

_Four days ago I was out on the ice with Sheldon when my tiny peanut sized bladder had me running back to the station compound. I thought to grab a quick snack and head back out to the ice field when I heard Howard's evil laughter. When I came around the kitchen corner, I found Leonard and Howard sniggering over the electric can opener. To my shame, I laughed too, I was eager to be in on the joke whatever it was. Leonard patted me on the shoulder and said "Raj, my man, I've finally found an end to Sheldon's bitchiness. Here in my hand I hold the analgesic to the pain in the ass formally known as Sheldon…."_

_He took my hand and placed it on the can opener pressing it down with his own. Howard said it was his turn and pushed me out of the way for it. I am still bewildered at this point and was laughing myself waiting for the punch line._

"_While running the can opener," Howard said tilting his head towards Leonard. "He found that the static frequency of the can opener creates a pseudo signature on Sheldon's equipment." Laughing and pounding his knee, he then said, "Sheldon thinks he's got the proof he need to prove the basis of string theory. Hahahaha….we've been doing it to him for two weeks now."_

_I admit that I laughed too, carried away by the others joviality (to my great shame). I left them there and went back out to meet Sheldon at the site we were working. He was so energetic and spoke at length of how he knew he was right and now he had the data to support his Hypothesis._

_It was then that I it dawned on me. Of course, Sheldon was going to publish his findings and if he did he would come under academic censure. You may not understand the ramifications, but as I said before Dr. Gablehauser will._

_I tried talking to Howard about it, so that they would stop or at least Howard would, but that was to no avail. Leonard says it's a joke and a way for us to keep Sheldon under control. Howard has never really liked Sheldon and for the most part I understand why but Leonard is supposed to be Sheldon's best friend. The look on Leonard's face is not one of friendship but one of self-vindication. I know that I'm not a good Hindu, but this brown boy does believe in Dharma and Karma. I do not wish to be part of this plot and have the Gods pay me back as a slimy slug in my next life for being one in this life. Sheldon may be high maintenance and insufferable, but he is a good friend and honest man and doesn't deserve this. I do not believe Leonard when he says this is just a joke._

_This morning Sheldon actually showed me the beginning of his preliminary report he's going to send it out two days from now on his Thursday satellite report. _

_I cannot tell Sheldon and have him believe me over Howard and Leonard and if he does believe me, I do not know what his reaction will be. Sheldon has not been his neurotic self. He's grown Penny! I know that that sounds crazy but all our physicals came back and the typo's (that's what Leonard calls them) say that Sheldon has grown two inches and he's put on some serious muscle. He's spending time in the workout room let me repeat that Sheldon been working out. When Leonard asked him why he had a sudden interest, Sheldon's reply was "A strong body for a strong mind". Then Leonard asked him what about workout rooms being a cesspool of germs and parasites? Sheldon said "Really, Leonard, I'm not as neurotic as your assumptions make me out to be. Since when, does Sheldon like to sweat? We hardly see him unless it's to run the experiments he's set for us or to accompany him out to the test sites. He gave me a strike for catching him meditating, excuse me, practicing Kholinar. The stares that go back and forth between him and Leonard when each doesn't think the other is looking are frightening. I'm not so sure Leonard is joking. I think he thinks Sheldon will just roll over and take this. I think this could crush Sheldon. _

_Penny, I need for you to go to Cal Tech give this data to Gablehauser; this is the only way I can think to save Sheldon's career and my honor! In this endeavor I have chosen sides, this I believe to be the honorable and right thing to do. I should have written you about this, four days ago. My excuses for not doing seem ludicrous now, it took me awhile to come up with this idea and to my shame I did not want to lose my friendship with Howard. I never thought he could be this way. I saw that it was no use reasoning with him, as hot upon Leonard's trail as he was._

_I never knew that Leonard hated Sheldon. I mean, I knew that he was jealous of Sheldon just by the way he speaks to him. His casual dismissal of Sheldon's feelings, are evident the way he talks about the man behind his back; you have witness this yourself. Any adult would view this situation and know it isn't just a prank. Leonard is a genius in his own right; I do not believe he is so naïve as to not know what this betrayal will do to Sheldon or what it could do to his academic career._

_Penny, Sheldon only listens to you. Please plead my case with Sheldon, let him know I had no part in this other than when I found out. I do not want to lose all my friends on this ill-fated expedition. This email and data attachment is my apology and my stance in the matter. I await your reply and your input, Penny, please please, please know I had nothing to do with this other than finding out._

_Sincerely,  
Your devoted friend  
Rajesh Koothrapali_

With tears in her eyes Penny quickly types a short reply to Raj;

_Dear Raj,_

_Don't worry too much,  
I got this,  
keep low profile and act as normal as possible  
Keep keeping an eye on Sheldon  
be in touch soon,  
Penny_

Grabbing her phone and laptop, rolling off Sheldon's bed, Penny flies into action making phone calls and setting up appointments. Spying an old fashion rolodex on Sheldon's shelf, she spins through it and finds Dr. Gablehauser's personal phone number… _Aw shit… Moonpie, I'm on my way. _She thinks as she dials the number.

"**Hello …..Dr. Gablehauser? Good evening, my name is Penny McGill; I have some distressing information that Dr. Koothrapali sent to me using his personal e-mail. It concerns the failure of the current expedition and Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper….. No sir …. I'm to give it to you personally. When is your earliest convenience… No sir you need this information before your satellite communique, Thursday…. Yes sir, it is that serious…. Yes sir, I can meet you at your office in half an hour….. Thank you for your time….uh huh…. uh huh… I'll be their soon… good bye.**

Penny hung up and proceeded down the list of numbers she would need to get to Sheldon…...all the while tears fell down her face.

**Sorry these are so sporadic, I know that the first two chapter have name errors I've revised it a butt load of times and the fixes haven't carried over I will continue to update it until it reads right. Penny's dad is Wyatt and her mom is karen her sister is Kylie and her brother Wyatt Jr.**

**Next Chapter Sheldon.**


	5. Chapter 5

SPOV

Bolting upright from yet another wet dream of Penny, Sheldon is no longer surprised to find he's gasping for air, drenched in sweat with the front of his briefs saturated with his semen. Not a night has gone by since arriving at the artic station that he hasn't dreamt of Penny and had this reaction. Shaking his head in exasperation, he grabs his toiletries and fresh clothing then heads for the shower.

With disgust he peeled off his soiled underwear and PJ's, then stepped into the shower.

'_Sweet Suffering Jesus!' _he thought. '_Next I'll be wearing Depends. I'll never win the Nobel Prize at this rate. The sooner I finish tabulating the data, the sooner I can get to Penny! _

That thought found his hand lathering the length of his aesthetically appealing genitalia. His dismayed groan of "Oh Good Lord!" did nothing to stop him from stroking his engorged member; his eidetic memory drowning Sheldon in the dream he awoke from_. _

'_Penny's head pulled back by her hair in his tight grip, her neck and proud breasts exposed to his hungry mouth and teeth, her moans of his name, the feel of her slick core clenching his fingers', _so vivid is the recollection of these images of Penny in his fantasy, Sheldon spills over the precipice of his desire leaving him weak kneed holding himself up with one hand on the shower wall.

Sheldon finished his interrupted cleansing ritual, with shuddering breaths. He was awake three hours earlier than is his norm; so he quietly made his way through the rec room to the exercise room. With everyone else asleep and none the wiser Sheldon wiped down the bar and bench with Clorox wipes before putting 200lbs on the barbell; laying down he started his presses. His mind reflects over the past few days as his arms flex and extend the weights over his thickening chest.

_Sheldon's body on autopilot, he focus' on the puzzling behavior of his friends that and his own reaction to them. Raj seemed disquieted, or Sheldon ventured, at least nervous. Sheldon repressed his own feelings to such a degree that he didn't trust his interpretation of others facial cues. _

_Howard on the other hand, was all too easy to read; smug bastard, the question was what did he have to be so smug about, his Master's degree? _Sheldon snorted in derision as he put the bar back up on the rack above his head. Moving through the rotation of his workout routine, a major portion of his attention ponders Leonard of late._ If Leonard wasn't his best friend he'd almost be tempted to say, Hofstadter liked him as much as Sheldon liked Wil Wheaton. _

The thing was Sheldon himself had no more patience for Leonard's constant and emphatic mooning over Penny. The others may have thought Sheldon's strict adherence to his routines was OCD or Asperger's Syndrome but as usual they were wrong, not that it was their fault. His stricture and quirks were his armor to slow the osmosis of stimuli. He may not have trusted his way through feelings, but years of varying degrees of verbal abuse and ridicule by the lower evolved had taught Sheldon when others were being snide. Leonard's snide remarks had increased with the duration of the expedition; and Sheldon found his patience had dwindled.

Since there was no solution to be found at this time, Sheldon shelved these contemplations and defaulted back to his monopole and string theory. When all else was in disarray, Physics remained his constant_ (yeah physics, Meemaw and Penny). _The trouble was that, the parameters of Sheldon's reality were being broached by unfamiliar catalysts on his physical as well as mental spectrum. His normal interactions where exacerbated by his altered physiology, interrupted REM cycles and a homesickness he hadn't experienced since he left for Germany at the age of fourteen; combined with all this, the changed behavior of his companions.

Sheldon was struggling simultaneously to maintain his aloof exterior and his focus on the lifelong ambition of proving String Theory thereby winning the Nobel. Kholinar had proffered no immediate solutions or relief from the unbidden thoughts and feelings that accosted the unprepared scientist. So, he kept to himself as much as possible, issuing directions in his succinct manner. The influx of desirable data that seemed to validate his hypothesis and Sheldon's sheer force of considerable will kept him from feeling adrift on sea of incertitude. Even his inner dialog of _"I have a working knowledge of the universe and all that's in it" _fell short of his usual authoritativeness.

Though the practice of Kholinar had not yielded the calm that had been sought, he had come upon some revelations that he could not refute (try as he might). Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D. and Sc.D., had a deal and it name was Penelope Raven McGill. Try as he might he had been unable to reconcile his desire for Penny with the social dictates of not pursuing one's best friend's ex. Akin to character in Penny's favorite book, "A Stranger In A Strange Land", Robert Heinlein's 'Valentine Michael Smith', Sheldon just didn't grok the altered paradigm he found himself in.

Finished with his workout, Sheldon detours to the communications room on hearing the fax machine chime an incoming fax.

To: Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper  
B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D. and Sc.D.  
Artic Expedition

From: Dr. Eric Gablehauser:  
Physics Department Chair,  
Caltech, Ca

Date: 8 a.m. Pacific Standard Time July 02, 2009

Re: Telecommunication time change and required personnel.

New Time 09:15 a.m. July 02, 2009 (22:15 UTC, July 03)

Be advised mandatory attendance required of following Team Personnel:

Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper  
Dr. Leonard Leakey Hofstadter  
Dr. Rajesh Ramayan Koothrapali  
Mr. Howard Joel Wolowitz

E.G. /n.c.

LPOV

Knock, knock, knock.

"Leonard"

Knock, knock, knock.

"Leonard"

Knock, knock, knock.

"Leonard"

Squinting at his clock Leonard exploded out of bed and whipped open the door. "What the hell, Sheldon? It's 5 in the morning… "

Sheldon quickly stuffed a copy of the disturbing letter into Leonard's hand and said; "My mistake, I thought you would be interested in this unsettling communique from Gablehauser." he then turned and walked off to revisit the shower.

"Wait, Sheldon …." Leonard called after him. "…. what is this?

Regarding Leonard's rumpled, irritated bespectacled appearance, through his own narrowed eyes, Sheldon replied "You hold said information within your hands. I suggest you read it or have Wolowitz read it to you!" without another word he resumed his walk to the showers.

Roused by the commotion, Howard joins Leonard at his doorway and asked "what's up with 'The Mad Scientist'?"

"He handed me this…." quickly scanning the contents of the paper in his grasp. "I wonder what could be so important that a change in time and ….. What's with the mandatory attendance…?"

Talking at the same time Howard said "Maybe we lucked out and they're calling us home… we could be warming our tuches' in the California sunshine and be up to our eyeballs in Pasadena babes in no time."

"When have we ever been that lucky?" Leonard morosely cut down Howard's daydream. "For all we know it could be your mother insisting we bring her little Howie home."

"God… Leonard, do you think I care why we'd get to go home early? I know you don't care why, as long as you can get out from Sheldon's thumb and back to stealing a certain sexy neighbor's mail again…"

"Alright, alright… you got me pegged" Leonard admitted. "We better get Raj and…"

"Naw, let Raj sleep a little longer, I heard him up all night and you know how weak his constitution is. Plus, the longer we can hide it from Sheldon the less time in his mysophobia land of surgical masks and Lysol showers we'll spend."

RPOV

Raj, who had been listening through his door, quickly but quietly, returns to his bed, all but collapsing on it. After a moment, Rajesh set up a small alter, lit a candle and an incense stick of sandalwood. Taking a deep breath, he begins to pray, "Aum Sri Ganesha Namah…"

I get these chapters out about once a week, sometimes it's longer. I so hate to keep you waiting. I just hope you find it worth it. Keep up the comments, I love your insights and questions. They keep me on track!


	6. Chapter 6

Gablehauser, Siebert and Penny POV

Upon arriving at his office, Dr. Gablehauser, was surprised to find that Dr. Siebert, the President of the Cal Tech waiting for him. The look on his friend face alerted Gablehauser, that this was not a social call.

"Eric, it's been brought to my attention that we have grave allegations of academic malfeasance and professional misconduct occurring at the North Pole drift station where our esteemed Dr. Cooper is conducting his Monopole experiments!" Dr. Siebert said without preamble.

"Sir, Joel, I assure you, I've only just received a phone call, not half an hour ago…"

"Yes, I'm aware…" Siebert interrupted him, moving into Gablehauser's office from the outer chamber and revealing the striking green eyed neighbor and friend of the scientist in question.

"Ms. McGill, please be kind enough to elucidate Dr. Gablehauser of the facts as you related them to me!"

"Dr. Gablehauser, I have here two sets of data pertaining to the experiments that Sheldon is conducting, that I told you over the phone about." Penny said as she handed him the print outs Raj had sent her. "Dr. Rajesh Koothrapali sent this to me with great disappointment and shame for his remaining teammates. The technical and personal details are impossible to ignore. I would also add that Raj has chosen to do what is right by Sheldon rather than standby in silence. We can all attest to his rather close personal friendship with Howard Wolowitz. So it doesn't take much imagination to understand the moral dilemma Raj found himself in."

Covering her face with one hand, Penny continued, "I don't have to tell you what this could do to Sheldon. Thursday, as you can see, he intends to share these bogus findings with the rest of the scientific community…" near the tears she'd been holding back for the past hour, Penny fought to control her worry for Sheldon and her anger at Hofstadter and Wolowitz.

"President Siebert, Dr. Gablehauser" she continued with a strained voice. "I don't think I have to tell you how serious this situation is to the Cal Tech and your hopes for getting a Nobel Laureate out of Dr. Cooper.

As she struggled with her self-control, the atmosphere in the room cooled as her disbelief and anger reached and percussed the two men.

"I was informed by my dear sweet friend, that Leonard Hofstadter is the mastermind and author of this …. This… I'm sorry gentleman for the language, but, this cluster fuck!" Penny flushed with renewed vehemence.

With uncharacteristic heat, the usually unflappable Dr. Eric Gablehauser looked to his friend and boss and asked, "How do we salvage this? This could ruin more than careers this could cast doubt on Cal Tech's government grants not to mention security clearances….. What it could cost us in new candidates alone…."

"Eric….. Eric….." Siebert's escalating pitch cut through Gablehauser's vexation with the heat of his own. "First things, first, Ms. McGill, I understand what this may mean to you but we will take care of the details and you understand that you cannot repeat any of this to any one….. "

That's when Penny turned on the men, and though she was several inches shorter than the two men, her anger towered over them. The tendrils of disquiet that had been growing in school administrators bloomed into near panic.

In a dreadfully quiet voice, Penny gritted out "I will not be dismissed and I will not be left out of this discussion, gentlemen! I can assure you that you will follow my advice, you will act on said advice and we will all benefit from circumspection rather than your modus operandi of Cover Your Ass. Now I understand from certain things that Howard Wolowitz was rather free with in hopes of scoring 'coitus' points with any drunken female he came across that you have access to a Cessna 525B CJ3 Citation Jet with modification made with Cal Tech's intimate association with the Jet Propulsion Lab?"

Having seen the chagrin on the faces of the two men at her query, Penny sadly smiled and continued to elaborate on the strategy they would present to the Board of Directors.

"In your hands, Dr. Gablehauser you will find a list of names as well as an outline of the steps I've already set in motion."

Penny didn't consciously use her abilities to manipulate most situations, but the stress of Sheldon's predicament and her love for him pushed her into a deeper intimacy of her 'Otherness'. With no remorse she alternated between anger, fear and indignation to impel Joel Siebert to implement the plan she had already set in motion.

Eric Gablehauser may not have been endowed with the towering intellect of the staff of scientists he managed, but he was a very adept at recognizing genius in others. His knack for manipulation and his desire to be associated with the greatest minds of academia had elevated him among his peers and landed him his current and suddenly unenviable position.

What he witnessed in Dr. Cooper's champion was on par if not beyond his own genius for machinations. His assessment of Ms. McGill's intellect grew as he perused the sheets of data and notes in his hand while listening to her layout the particulars of her tactics. The young lady knew exactly how vested in the great Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper, Cal Tech was. She used this knowledge and her insights on Cooper to simultaneously bludgeon and cajole Joel Siebert and himself into compliance. (At least that's how he rationalized it).

**The Artic**

Two days later Dr. Gablehauser and President Siebert attributed their capitulation, to the deviousness and safe retribution afforded by the plan concocted by the fiery blonde beauty. They had already landed at Alert Airport in Nunavut, Canada, being the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world. God! He hated the cold. It was with evident relief that Dr. Siebert gave his consent to the event's about to occur, opting to be the one to inaugurate the video link from Pasadena. After his own encounter with the "Wild Nebraskan" as he had dubbed Penny, he had the feeling it was safer staying in California. Only his own sweet mother, dead these past twenty years had ever made him want to run from her anger or bask in her praise; He'd never thought to see the like of her again, until this young woman.

Once he had given his consent to implement "their plan", her obvious relief had flooded the room with warm and effusive 'thank you's'. Those called in for the emergency meeting all but fell over themselves to give the young spitfire anything she wanted. Joel had confided in him that he felt the girl's intellect and charisma would benefit Dr. Cooper and Cal Tech, if she were to become Cooper's official personal assistant; Gablehauser was of two minds on the subject but kept his own counsel.

It was a forty five minute military helicopter ride from the Alert Airport to the Drift Station that the men were ensconced in. The past two days had been a flurry of activity and now the stage was set. Penny had been correct on the non-disclosure sections of all the team's contractual obligations as well as manipulating any perceived recourse. It had taken the university lawyers six hours to verify what she had proposed to be legal. Contacting and gathering up the rest of the players in this debacle and arranging things to accommodate Ms. Penny's timetable had not been as arduous as he had first supposed. He was impressed with her time management and attention to detail.

Turning his head, with a sigh, he addressed the striking passenger, who was being served a steaming cup of Chai tea. Though she was sitting, she was tall and slender with the same piercing blue eyes of her grandson. She had taken everything in stride when presented with the impending disaster and quickly endorsed Ms. McGill's interpretation of Dr. Cooper's possible reaction of his "friends" betrayal.

"Mrs. Lee, again, I hope you'll let me proffer my deepest apologies for this misadventure and my gratitude for your assistance in extricating young Dr. Cooper from this before it became a personal catastrophe."

"As I told that sweet child that just left, I'm here for my grandson and though I may not understand the particulars, I've done watched over that poor brilliant boy his whole life. I ain't about to quit now. Anyways, there was no way in tarnation I was going to be left with those two harpies back in Pasadena." Mrs. Lee said with a grimace.

"Well, that's God's own truth; I'd rather be here at the top of the world than have to endure them either. Still. I am grateful for your support and your company" he said with a relieved sigh. "The time for the conference call is almost upon us and I have some last minute preparations to oversee. It wouldn't do to fail on any detail of Ms. McGill's design, now would it? I do believe she mentioned physical harm by way of bondage and mutilation"

Sheldon's Meemaw let out a hearty chuckle, "I believe she said that she would hog-tie and castrate anyone who screwed up. I've been waiting on that young woman for some time now. She's perfect for Sheldon and he's gonna need her now more than ever. I appreciate you sendin' this fine aero plane to come fetch me. You go on now and I'll be here for my part when the time comes. I'm going to enjoy this wonderful tea. Ain't no sense worrying now" that last bit was said under her breath, as she watched him head to the front of the jet to confer with the pilot.

**PPOV**

With great relief Penny realized that the closer to the Drift Station and Sheldon she got, the more contained Penny felt. Thank whatever Gods out there for the decision to call in Sheldon's beloved grandmother on board for reinforcements. The older woman was the anodyne Penny had needed to buffer those poor souls unfortunate enough to be in close proximity to the upset Empath. Meemaw eased Penny's sudden spikes of uncertainty with the maternal aptitude of years of being an eccentric genius' grandmother.

They were in luck the weather had held and Penny was now standing outside the outer doors of the drift station flanked by two borrowed Canadian airmen. All the necessary arrangements had been made to end this sad fiasco in as expeditiously and as confidentially as possible. She had only had to wait in the heated Piston Bully for five minutes before her cue was given by radio. She had spent those five minutes quietly immersed in the unseen wash of Sheldon's unobservable emoting. She had felt him just before the helicopter landed and though she had anticipations for the scene that would ensue; her heartache eased as she moved closer to his emotional purview.

Taking a deep breath Penny entered the stations outer door adjacent to the core room as described to her. She followed Sheldon's emotions like her old bloodhound on a scent trail. Any minute now she'd be in his presence.

Almost have the confrontation done, and will have it out directly! Apparently brain cells need oxygen to promote a good story….. Go figure…

Remember Reviews = Love


	7. Chapter 7

**For this chapter Sheldon's physical and mental experiences are in italics. I hope you enjoy!**

SPOV

Knock, Knock, Knock

"Rajesh"

Knock, Knock, Knock

"Rajesh"

Knock, Knock, Knock

"Rajesh….. Its 8:30 AM….. Raj we…

The door swung open to reveal the tired eyed Hindu, even Sheldon could see that something was bothering Raj.

"I'm coming Sheldon, I was just washing my hands, keep your shirt on, my friend"

"Why pray tell would I take my shirt off" Sheldon asked perplexed.

RPOV

The question was so Sheldon, that Raj had to smile and in that moment he truly felt the rightness of his choice infuse his being. He had spent the past two days in prayer searching for the strength to fortify his heretofore weak nature.

As Raj passed Sheldon his Vulcan hearing picked up Raj's whispered prayer "मेरी गहरी आभार गणेश"

SPOV

_Sheldon was taken aback; why would Raj say 'My deepest gratitude Ganesh'. Sheldon may still have had trouble with facial cues, but he was observant and the change in Raj's demeanor from exhausted to what he dared to think… that Raj' looked… well, hopeful. This rare insight sent a small part of Sheldon's great intellect to probe this strange anomaly._

_Walking up behind his exotic friend, Sheldon found himself on the verge of initiating physical contact but before his hand could make the attempt, Sheldon's body abruptly halted in mid-action as his senses suddenly pick up on a nebulous wisp of ….something._

_Shaking his head at this sudden inattention Sheldon tries not to dwell on this latest 'symptom' and to focus on the meeting at hand._

Sheldon and Raj found the room empty. They spent the next ten minutes setting up Sheldon's cherished white boards and going over the computer models for "show and tell." Neither scientist called Leonard or Howard. Raj was beginning to notice that Sheldon hadn't started to fret over how close to the wire Hofstadter and Wolowitz were cutting it.

_At first Sheldon put his easing tension down to the call of his beloved Quantum Physics. The universe was his anodyne of choice. With each passing second bringing the Video conference that much closer Sheldon shocked himself and poor Raj by whistling as he ritually wiped the table they were to sit at for the beginning of the meeting._

_Sheldon stood up straight rubbing his hands up and down his upper arms as he tried to rationalize the sudden behavior and retain his aloofness. Still he knew this feeling, this being comfortable in his own skin, he'd been missing it for months… 'That's it' Sheldon was obviously anticipating going home to Pasadena. (And Penny)_

"PLEASE tell me that weren't you whistling Raj, or has Sheldon's programming finally cracked" Leonard said in surprised disgust"

Without missing a beat Raj quipped back with "Way to go showing up at the last minute Leonard!"

"Shouldn't that be Sheldon's observation?" griped Howard as he kicked the door shut behind him.

"His observation, my observation, what does that matter you and Leonard purposely showed up at the last moment, why?

"It's better than throwing his I Pad out on the ice and locking him out there when he tries to retrieve it?"

"Well I guess this sheds further light on the matters at hand!" the startled group heard the angry voice materialized from behind them. "Do you suffer this type of verbal abuse often Dr. Cooper?"

"President Siebert? This is a surprise!" I was under the impression that Dr. Gablehauser would be conducting this meeting?" Sheldon's answer sidestepped the question.

Dr. Cooper, I assure you that Dr. Gablehauser will be along after I've had my say."

"Dr. Siebert….." Leonard interrupted," We're not normally like this sir…. it's the isolation and close proximity… we didn't mean anything by it, right Sheldon?

_When Leonard had so unprofessionally interrupted Cal Tech's president, Sheldon leaned forward with his hands resting on the table and used the moments to steady himself. 'As he was readying his reply to Leonard, Sheldon was so suddenly untroubled and relaxed, that he had to sit down._

Interpreting Sheldon's unexpected quietness for acquiescence, Leonard gave Howard and Raj a pointed stare as an unspoken command for them to just leave Siebert and the situation up to him. It wasn't until Leonard moved closer to the monitor to assert his dominance, that the myopic homunculus got his first good look at Dr. Siebert's expression.

"Dr. Hofstadter, Please be so kind as to sit down and allow the other participants to come online" Speaking to someone off screen President Siebert asked "Are we ready?... Good"

The screen split into quadrants, the top two held President Siebert and unexpectedly the other showed Cal Tech's Board of Directors. The bottom two squares had an empty chair in each.

Leonard dropped boneless into his own chair on command, his surprise and unease growing equally. Looking about the room he saw the alarmed expression on Howard's face and to a lesser degree, Raj's. Both men had already sat down, their eyes darting back and forth between Sheldon, each other and the screen before them.

Sheldon though, seemed catatonic, still staring down at his hands poised on the table before him, as if on a key board. What the hell…? Looking back up to President of the university Leonard began to dread what he was going to have to come up with in order shore up whatever Sheldon's batch of crazy had done this time.  
A cynical smile graced his face as he viewed Sheldon's blank expression, Yeah…. He could fix this….

PPOV

Quietly approaching the door in front of her, Penny walked through a growing storm of emotions. The calm that she'd so naturally projected when around Sheldon and the boys snapped back into place, filling her up and spilling outward.…. surging and searching. Placing her hand and then her forehead lightly on the door, Penny listened to the voices within. She could feel Sheldon on the other side even though she couldn't hear him; she'd never felt him so strongly before….. The sensation made her catch her breath, one thought preeminent, drowning out all others in that one eternal moment, the plans, the people, the situation all paled as her empathic heart silently, beseechingly, cried out one word.

_**('Sheldon')**_

SPOV

_Sheldon may have seemed frozen but at usual his mind was dynamic as he gathered himself to address this unforeseen quandary manifesting before him._

(_**'Sheldon')**_

"_Penny?" Sheldon strangled out in a whisper as his head snapped wildly around searching… for what?_

The three other men gave varying startled glances to the tall scientist at his quiet exclamation.

'_Oh yeah' _thought the jealous little man. _'This will be doable!'_

"Dr. Cooper?" Dr. Siebert's soft enquiry called. "Dr. Koothrapali….Gentlemen of the Board... We have three more members that I shall introduce as this call progresses… Pres. Siebert looked off camera again and nodded his acknowledgement of the unheard message.

_Rubbing his hand over his face, Sheldon brings his eyes to the screen and the matter's at hand purposely ignoring the daggers being stared at him by Leonard. The alpha male in him bristles at Leonard's posturing and the need to reassert his position as team leader helped him corral any outward appearances of his inner turmoil. He might be losing his mind but he's be damn if he'd let that little troll see him lose it._

"Dr. Seibert, I must say I am gratified if not a little surprised at this unexpected if not unwarranted interest on what possibly is the long awaited proof of String Theory!" Sheldon says with a nervous breathy laugh.

"Ah… Sheldon…." Leonard suddenly says while simultaneously shielding his ribs from the sudden jab he'd received from Wolowitz.

"Gentleman, Please! I have some serious matter's that have arisen here in Pasadena! We will address the ongoing experiments on resolution of THIS emergency. Now before we get into the details for convening this conclave. It has been decided in light of certain facts and security measures that we will be interviewing two of you at a time. Dr. Hofstadter and Mr. Wolowitz you will remain. Drs. Cooper and Koothrapali Please remove yourselves from this room, you will be summoned forthwith."

"But… but…" Sheldon stuttered at the sudden dismissal. He couldn't help but see Leonard's' haughty smirk.

"Dr. Cooper all will be revealed shortly and we are wasting time" said an unnamed voice from the boardroom.

_Sheldon gathered the mute Koothrapali with a nod of his head and stoically left the room under Leonard's gloating stare. When Raj opened the door for them to leave Sheldon's laboring sanity half expected to see the bewitching blonde standing there. _

'_What else?' his tired mind queried._

RPOV

"Sheldon, there are two Canadian Airmen down the hall, standing on either side of the exit door." Raj whispered. He knew that this was all somehow connected to the false data. Where ever all this led, he was content to let it unfold. He turned his back on the closed door and Howard Wolowitz for good.

"Do you smell cherry blossoms and almonds?" Raj stared at Sheldon and noticed the nervous tic's bouncing along Sheldon's jaw. Then he was chasing the jogging genius back into the sleeping quarters.

SPOV

_As he walked into the hall, Sheldon was bombarded with the scents of cherry blossom and almond. His question to Raj was a mere reflex of his mind to ascertain reality. His body was already moving, following the scent down the hall and back into his personal quarters.  
With all the stress Sheldon was under; the physical anomalies, the eroding of his ability to quell emotion, his painfully emerging sexual hunger, then lack of REM cycles, the isolation of the artic, the underlying hostility of his circle of friends, Sheldon feared he might be losing his mind._

PPOV

It took more than was pretty to walk away from that damn door. He was just on the other side… So close….. So close. With quiet alacrity Penny made her way down the hall then let herself into Sheldon's room and began to pace. Minutes later Penny felt Sheldon moving toward her, his emotional turmoil preceded him. Buffeting shields Penny wasn't aware she had. Unaware, her anticipation pulsed out another flash of…..

_**('Sheldon')**_

RPOV

Raj was on Sheldon's heels, when Sheldon halted abruptly at the entry to his quarters and suddenly dropped to his knees like someone had sand bagged him. "Aum Lakshmi" Raj squeaked, for over Sheldon's head Raj saw what had dropped Sheldon. There stood Penny stunned into immobility, staring at the man before them.

Raj laid his hand on his lucky friend's shoulder and before leaving them for his room to give them their privacy, he whispered to Sheldon, "I see her too"

Penny could only nod at Raj her eyes never leaving Sheldon's.

When he first saw her, he saw the pain on her face and his first thought was "Dear Lord… no more….. What has happened?" That and the shock of her actually being there was why his knees gave out, but their eyes locked and she moved forward, the distress on her face rapidly replaced by worry; yet she wore a tremulous smile. She would not be smiling even a little if something else had happened. All this runs through his mind in a nanosecond and then she's on her knees before him looking up into his face. Her gloved hand remained an inch away from him, letting him make the first move.

The moment he laid eyes on her he realized why his discomforts had dissipated, and as always the sight of her calmed him. Some iron band around his chest, of which Sheldon had been unaware of, loosened enough that he could breathe again. The closer she got to him, the deeper his breath. He half expected her to throw herself at him yet instead she had dropped to her knees a foot away from him; her gloved hand slightly ahead of her body entreating to be held.

This simple act of Penny's, her conscious stopping of herself, in consideration for his need of personal space, stripped Sheldon of a large part of his slipping control. He reached out and gathered her to him.

The maelstrom in his mind quieted and the aching in his body eased in the anodyne that's Penny. His inner dialog ceased for the moment as he soaked Penny in.

"We've much to discuss, you and I." Sheldon whispers near her ear.

It's one thing to calm others when she herself was at peace; it was a horse of a different color to try and soothe another when she was herself worried. Her pain at his pain became added stress with her trying to soothe herself as well as him. Part of her mind was monitoring her own reactions. She needed to be strong for Sheldon and Raj. She was confident that Sheldon would believe Raj and retain his friendship. It was his reaction to the other arrangements she had initiated in his stead that she was a bit unsure of. She allowed no skin on skin contact lest her worry jump to him undoing all the comfort she was generating.

"Yes…. Much…"

**What do you think so far?**


	8. Chapter 8

**The Conference Room**

If Joel Siebert had had any doubts as to the "Wild Nebraskan's" evaluation of the "cluster fuck" developing in the Arctic; the scene that the camera had come on line to, laid them to rest. It was evident from the looks on their faces and the tone of their voices that neither Hofstadter nor Wolowitz respected Dr. Cooper.

Once the door had closed on Drs. Cooper and Koothrapali, Dr. Siebert let out a harsh breath and commenced the meeting.

"It has come to our attention that a Dr. Cooper has made some questionable decisions that may have jeopardized this mission and possibly Cal Tech's academic standing in the scientific community. So great in fact are these errors in judgment, that we've convened the full Board of Directors. Are we agreed that any and all measures are to be utilized in order to rectify this situation? All in favor say 'aye'!"

"Gentlemen?" Siebert said pointedly at the two in the Arctic.

"Aye!" said Leonard.

"And aye" said Howard looking incredulous to Leonard.

LPOV

'_Holy shit!'_ thought Leonard '_what did that insufferable Praying Mantis do now?'_ Outwardly he straightened his shoulders and waited for the particulars; having been around academic politics his whole life, he knew how to spin things.

"First things first" he heard Dr. Siebert say. "On the screen to your left I believe, you should be seeing a copy of the confidentiality clause of your contracts with your signatures. Am I correct?"

Leonard nodded then said "yes."; which was echoed by Howard.

"One more thing and then down to business. Dr. Hofstadter you're reported to be Dr. Sheldon's best friend and roommate. Am I correct?

"Yes, I've been his roommate for eight years now." Leonard nodded, ignoring the way Wolowitz' head whipped around to stare at him. This could be his one chance, to get out from under Sheldon's neurotic shadow.

Pres. Siebert's eyes narrowed as he asked, "How would you characterize, Dr. Cooper? If you don't mind my asking?

He's a genius, when it comes most any subject he has encyclopedic knowledge. He's brilliant and… He's erratic and has no social skills; his neurotic tendencies can at times incapacitate him if certain rituals aren't observed. He needs someone around him at all times to maintain balance.

_Howard's draw dropped lower with each word Leonard spoke. A prank that kept Sheldon manageable __**and**__ gave Howard the satisfaction of sticking it to him …. Well that's just bagels, cream cheese and lox. Needling Sheldon… well…. It's just what he did….. But … Fuuuuck… What a shmuck… Damn I should've listened to Raj. Leonard's stabbing his best bud in the back. Sheldon saved my life once…. _

"Mr. Wolowitz, do you concur with what Dr. Hofstadter?" The question hung heavy in the air.

"No, no I don't. Dr. Cooper may get on my last nerve, but he's not unstable. He's a perfectionist who thinks he knows everything, that just makes him eccentric and anal, not unstable. He's rarely wrong but when he is, he does everything in his power to rectify it."

"Howard…." Leonard stood up to protest.

"Mr. Wolowitz, I think I can say for all of us, how pleasantly surprised we are to hear your answer. Do you by any chance know what this emergency is about?" said a Board member Howard didn't know the name of.

"No Mam, but I'm beginning to think that the biggest mistake Dr. Sheldon Cooper ever made was picking us to be his team." He said, staring back at Hofstadter.

Ignoring Leonard, Dr. Siebert continued on to the next step.

"Dr. Hofstadter and Mr. Wolowitz can you tell me what it is that's on the monitor to your right?

_One look and Howard knew exactly what they were doing there. 'Fuck me!'_

LPOV

_Leonard was still reeling from Howard's defection, he'd miscalculated when he thought that Howard would just refrain from saying anything at all, and then the screen to his right lit up with the false data side by side with the correct data….._

'_Wait…. Wait….' he thought, 'Where the hell did they get that….. Shit, shit, shit….'_

_Sweating profusely, Leonard's squinting gaze darted quickly among the different screens. When he risks a glance at Howard, he finds the other little man has put his forehead on the table in front of him. _

"We are waiting gentlemen, exactly what is your explanation for this? Before you answer, know that academic malfeasance and proof of sabotaging another scientist's experiment are terminating offences.

"It was a joke….. You don't know what it's been like up here…" Leonard was stammering while staring at the damaging data on the screen, when he heard the most dreadful sound… as Beverly Hofstadter, M.D, Ph.D., and mother took her seat in the left lower quadrant of the center screen.

"Yes Leonard, Please tell us your justification for this attempt at intellectual assassination; 'Attempt' being the operative word in the sentence."

"It wasn't like that, Mother"

"Of course it wasn't, it just appearances, I fail to see why you set such store in appearances, we've discussed this before and yet here we are…"

"Not now mother" Leonard said with his head in his hands.

HPOV

_Hearing Leonard's mother voice cause Howard to press his forehead harder into the tabletop. The engineer in him instinctually knew what the next step would be and…. Wait for it….'_

"איך בין אַזוי פאַרשעמט, האָוואַרד איך האָבן גאָרנישט צו זאָגן צו איר, (I'm so ashamed, Howard, I have nothing to say to you)" His mother said from the right hand quadrant, below the boardroom square.

'…_. And there it is!'_

"Ma…I'm sorry … Ma… you have no **idea** how much…." He beseeched his mother.

"Tell that to your little friend, Sheldon. Hey…. Mister President Man…. I'm done here… I will see you when you get back, Howard" Without another word Mrs. Wolowitz walked out of the shot.

"Bringing the meeting back to order … I would say it's been established that both Dr. Hofstadter and Mr. Wolowitz recognize the items in question. I have a few suggestions and one more person that we will be hearing from."

"Dr. Hofstadter, by what you've shown us here and by past events that have been cited….

"Wait just a minute what past event's….."

Dr. Siebert opened a file in front of him, and then looked up with a tight smile on his face when he began to read out loud.

"When working with The Jet Propulsion Lab in collusion with the military to produce a more efficient jet fuel you did knowingly remove some of the formula off site. Allowed said formula to ignite, putting the lives of the tenants of your residence, not to mention your friends lives in danger. You also engaged in a relationship with the Korean spy known as Joyce Kim….. Should I go on?"

"Mr. Wolowitz…."

"No that's okay I'd rather….."

"But Mr. Wolowitz, this is no longer about what you or Dr. Hofstadter wants. I gave my word that you would understand what's happening completely. The outcome of these moments is contingent on what takes place in the here and now. As I was saying, you sir, did bring women to the Mars Rover Control Room for less than noble reasons. On one of these occasions you were responsible for the crashing of the multi-million dollar space vehicle. Do either of you deny these facts and I don't mean semantics."

"When did Sheldon find out?" Was all Howard could manage to get out.

"He's finding out as we speak." replied Dr. Siebert. Howard, then Leonard made an attempt to go to the door, when Seibert called out loudly. "Airmen" The door swung open to reveal two rather large Canadian airmen on either side of it, with more men in uniform moving through the hall.

"Gentlemen, please remain in this room. Thank you" was all big Canadian said then he stepped back and closed the door.

"Dr. Hofstadter, Mr. Wolowitz. There is still the matter of this review. Howard Wolowitz, your security clearance has been revoked, The Government has benched all patents you have pending. It was agreed that if you showed any integrity during this inquiry that you would retain employment under two years of academic censure."

LPOV

"Oh that's just great….. What's my punishment, the guillotine? Leonard griped out.

"Oh! Here come the dramatics." commented Leonard's mother.

"You can still have employment Doctor, it's just not with us, and I believe you start in two weeks at the Hazlet Middle School, in Hazlet New Jersey as their ninth grade science teacher." continued Dr. Siebert.

"What? You can't do that!" Leonard shouted in horror.

"Well I guess up to a point your right. You don't have to take the job, then again if you don't the details of your dismissal along with the details of data switching. I'm sure that you will be able to find legitimate employment…. in say…. Mexico?"

"You might as well take the job Leonard, besides" his mother interjected, "All your stuff is already en route!"

"What? You can't **do that!** He shouted yet again.

He keeps saying that." murmured Beverly

"Actually, **I can**, so **I did**," said a soft voice. "That's what a Power of Attorney is for!"

Both Leonard and Howard came up out of their seats so fast the chairs fell to the ground.

"(((**PENNY)))!"**


	9. Chapter 9

"You're here! ...Your here… How are you here?" Sheldon murmured in her hair in wonderment. Her scent pervaded his senses; it was her….Penny in his arms, her arms crushing him to her as he gently held her.

He was holding her, she was in his arms, and he had pulled her to him of his own accord…. He barely hesitated. For the moment it was all she could do not to tilt her head up and back to capture his lips with her own.

"Do you trust me, Sheldon?" Penny said with her head resting on his chest.

Sheldon tried to pull back to look down at her but she was having none of it, holding on even tighter.

"What is it? Penny? Tell me…"

"Please, Moonpie, please answer the question, I've done a lot of things and some I've done in your name so I'm going to need you …"

Sighing and still very much in shock, Sheldon hugged Penny and said barely above a whisper. "You are my best friend, Penny, of course I trust you"

Even if Penny had known she was doing it at the time she couldn't have stopped it. On hearing those words from Sheldon, a pulsing wave of love rolled forth from Penny, it cascaded around and through Sheldon; lapping along his aura and his skin….

_((Sheldon)) _

"Oh God…." was Sheldon's whispered moan in response to the sensation, his eyes hooded with the dopamine rush in the wake of her emotion.

Maybe be it was the sudden desire or maybe it was the depth of his moan that penetrated Penny's fugue, but whatever it was, it pulled her back to the here and now.

"Sweetheart, let's get up off the floor okay? Raj …. Sweetie, please come back in here!

Raj came back into Sheldon's room to see Penny pulling Sheldon down to sit with her on his bed, just to bounce back up, as she came over and gave Raj a hug.

"Raj… Sweetie…. I'll never be able to repay you for having Sheldon's back like this…."

"Will someone be so kind as to tell me, what the Frak is going on?" Sheldon said exasperated.

Walking over and locking the door Penny leaned up against it be for replying. "Well, Raj found that Leonard and Howard were manipulating the data that you were receiving with a can opener, the frequency of which, masqueraded as the low-energy excitations in the spin ice for those classical magnetic monopoles that you were verifying. Raj didn't think you would believe him…" she said patting Rajesh's arm as she spoke to Sheldon. "When you told him you were going to give the preliminary report to Dr. Gablehauser, he told the only person that he thought you might listen too, me."

Walking over and sitting down next to Sheldon, she found herself looking up further than she was used to, Penny said to Raj, "When you said he got taller…. I didn't think he got …. Well… **taller….. **Anyway, I couldn't leave you here with those two back stabbing bastards so I got hold of Dr. Siebert and Dr. Gablehauser as Raj had suggested and well ….right now… according to how Leonard and Howard conduct themselves in that room you just came from… well, they're getting their walking papers."

Raj blanched at that last statement, Sheldon started for the door, but Penny's voice stopped him as surely as if he'd been stopped with a remote control.

" I brought your Meemaw here too" and with that she handed him the radio she'd pulled out of Parka pocket.

"You said what? …. When you say here…?

"I mean she's sitting in that jet I'm not supposed to know about at the Alert Airport and on the other end of that radio." Penny answered him, as she bit her bottom lip.

'_Maybe there is a God' _Sheldon thought as he looked at her, because only a God could have made such a bewitching beauty as Penny. Once what Penny had told him had finally sunk in, the physical need to beat Leonard to a pulp, had launched Sheldon towards the door. Just as abruptly though, she had him turned back to her, from his vengeance, she'd brought the "Calvary" so to speak. She brought out the big guns and Meemaw, the one person in the world who could get Sheldon to do anything was minutes away brought by (_his) _Penny.

A light knock and a voice called through the door. "Ms. McGill you need to turn the radio on… that call you've been waiting on is a go"

"Thank you, Captain" looking up to Sheldon "It's for you!"

"This is Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper"

"Moonpie? …Honey… Are you alright?

"Not really Meemaw, it appears that my research may have been put back another year and my supposed best friend along with a vile henchman has betrayed me."

"Your best friend is standing in front of you and she brought the dang air force to get us to you. Don't leave the room and listen to what she has to say" Sheldon looked at Penny g

"But Meemaw….."

"I know you're angry, Moonpie, but Sheldon, honey, You got your daddy's temper and you know it now instead of fussin Penny needs you to back her up! Now, I love you and I'll be seeing you directly."

I love you to Meemaw; I will listen to Penny, Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper …. Out"

Straightening up to his full height, Sheldon looked down at Penny with a speculative look. "Alright Penny, let me have the rest of it! All of it, I don't think I can take many more surprises.

Raj who chose this moment to speak joined in with, "Why is the Canadian Air force here?"

Though Penny had been soaking in the sight of Sheldon since he dropped at the door, her silent examination had intensified when she handed the radio over to him. She could feel how stressed out Sheldon truly was. The only outward appearance of the hammer strokes on Sheldon's ego and psyche was a flinching around his glorious eyes, no ticks, no stammers.

Penny had watched Sheldon as he absorbed the sudden changes hammering at him. He didn't handle abrupt changes well and right now he had clamped down on his anger and turned searching eyes to her. She needed to get him some where she could soothe his overextended nerves; she needed to get him alone!

"Okay … the Air force… well that was Siebert's contribution. He was led to believe with certain truths that Leonard and Howard were less than trust worthy and if they could sabotage a friend's project …. Well then what else had they been dishonest about? So a few members on the board pulled a few strings and the fastest way to get you all out of here was with the unofficial help of the Canadian Air force. You know the University would do much not to have any of this come to light. They are here to make sure that Leonard and Howard leave with only their clothes. They are also here to emphasize the gravity of those two pin heads' situation; they are not allowed to take anything with them…..at least nothing electronic, nothing but their clothes and even that will be thoroughly searched. I used the P.O.A's you talked the guys into giving me and I had movers pack all of Leonard's shit up and it's already been shipped to New Jersey … If he's smart he'll take the job in Hazlet New Jersey."

"What University is there? Raj said perplexed.

Penny bit her lip again as she watched the horror grow in Sheldon's face as he understood what she had had done and answered for her. "There isn't one, but since memory serves, there is a secondary school there?

"I just did to him what he would have done to you Sheldon."

"Wait … What….. I don't get it what did you do to him. Penny?

"She took science away from him Raj; she had him sent to a junior high school, he is no longer elite, I thought he was… not my caliber elite… but then so few are.. now I must doubt he ever was!

"I didn't take away Science ….. He threw it away…..He can still teach science, he just won't be published or accepted on any campus of any college in the U.S. or abroad. Penny shook her head with an angry smirk. "I also called Dr. Beverly Hofstadter and Mrs. Wolowitz. They're on the Vid-link in there right now"

Raj looked at Penny like she grew six more arms, swords and all. He had known that she would do everything in her power to help Sheldon. What he had not understood was what length she would go to or what resources she would or could call up? She must be an incarnation of Shiva in human form. She wasn't even acting like herself; she looked like Penny, then again he was speaking out loud in front of Penny without alcohol! All he was sure of in that moment was that he never wanted her as an enemy!

"With great power comes great responsibility" quoted Sheldon at her in memory and with wonderment.

"Look, I have a good idea what's going on in the conference room and I have to go in there and deliver the coup-de-grace. I need to go in there with two answers from the both of you. First, the Board want's assurances that you'll be staying with Cal Tech and this fiasco is not to be spoken of. Raj since you were instrumental in saving Cal Tech's prestige and their future Nobel laureate's academic's standing in the scientific community. Your Visa has been extended indefinitely and your position for tenure has been approved."

Raj sat heavily at Sheldon's desk and nodded in agreement. '_What about Howard?'_ he wondered. _'What Siberia did she send Howard to? _His sorrow for his former friend was still poignant.

Reaching out to Raj she radiated reassurance "Don't worry Raj; it's karma, surely you see the truth of it?" Turning back to the topic, she tamped down on the excess that threatened her.

'_Maybe she was the Goddess incarnate' _thought Raj.

"Just pack up what you can get your hands on, the rest will be done by the men that came with me and we'll hop on the helicopter and you'll be in Meemaw's arms in less than an hour. We can discuss the rest on the way home. While you're doing that, I'll be finishing things up with the Bobbsey twins. Walking back to the locked door, Penny said "Oh by the way from now on you are with us Raj."

"I have questions Penny!" Sheldon said not wanting her to leave his side yet… ever.

"I promise I'll answer all your questions when I get back" she lent in so close to his face, he thought she meant to kiss him, but she stared intently into his eyes instead and said "Everything, Sweetheart, I'll tell you everything." He gave her a nod of assent, and without another word Penny was out in the hall.

"I was told to remain at this door until your return Ms. McGill." said the guard standing there.

"That's not necessary, Captain I have Dr. Sheldon's word and once you have his word you have his honor. He won't break his word, ever!"

"It shouldn't be that long before we're back in the air and out of your hair… I'd like your company for the next fifteen minutes….. Got a schedule to keep" she continued down the hall accompanied by the large Canadian."

Leonard's loud whine could be heard out in the hall, "What? You **can't **do that!"

Penny stepped in the room

He keeps saying that." murmured Beverly

"Actually**, I can**, so **I did**," said a soft voice. "That's what a Power of Attorney can be used for!"

Both Leonard and Howard came up out of their seats so fast the chairs fell to the ground.

"(((PENNY)))!"

"Ms. McGill I see you made it there in one piece" Mr. Siebert gravely greeted Penny.

Dr. Siebert, Ladies and Gentleman of the Board, Beverly", Penny greeted the large screen in the middle of the wall while the Captain "helped" Leonard and Howard back into their seats.

Penny barely had a grip on her shields when she walked in; the maelstrom of anger jealousy, fear and defeat wreaked havoc with Penny's untried resources, but after taking a few breaths and engaging in the polite greetings, She found her grip on herself all the more sure. She could do this. She'd been up for straight 56 hours and she was wide awake. '_Here we go' _she thought.

She finally turned around and glared at her former friends, pushing disappointment and profound distrust ahead of her. She focused mostly on Leonard.

Leonard had a respectable IQ genius of 173, so he knew exactly who side she had somehow flown up to save. It wasn't him she was there for and all of a sudden he hated her. Why not him? Why that fucking neurotic freak? Why Sheldon's board first… She was ignorant so there was no way she knew that Sheldon's white board was better than his own. Always Sheldon, God he hated all of them. So he met her glare for silent glare. No repentance to be seen or felt.

"Fine, you want to be this… this… this… whatever this is fine, I'll tell you" she answered his unasked 'Why?' "'Why Sheldon?' because this stunt proves that he's the better man, that's why!

"Yeah, well screw you too Princess, your welcome to that whole bag of fucked up!"

"That's enough of that language" Dr. Siebert intervened.

"That will be enough, Leonard", Scolded Beverly Hofstadter

"You know what? Whatever just tell me what I have to do, to get the hell away from the lot of you! New Jersey will be a vacation."

"Really, Leonard? Really… Fine, so be it Leonard" Penny shook her head. His suddenly new hatred was potent in its fury, and it stabbed at her. She'd thank Meemaw again later, she was right, Sheldon didn't need to be anywhere near Leonard the further away the better. Pulling out an envelope with Leonard's and Howard's Power of Attorney and tore them down the middle then left the pieces on the table in front of Leonard. Turning to face Howard she turned her back on Leonard.

"Yeah… You too sweetheart!" was Leonard's spat at her back. The need to stay hidden over-road her need to lash out at him in her anger; to give him a small taste of what she endured every time someone lost their temper. But lashing him with the heat of her anger was a luxury she could not indulge in. With Dr. Siebert and the Whole board of Director watching not to mention the Analytical Neuroscientist in Leonard's mom, lashing out wasn't smart. Ignoring him cost her, but not what it could cost if any of the people viewing figured out what she was. There were government people viewing this. It wasn't easy but was smarter so she did it.

"What about you Howard? Do you have anything to say?"

Howard wouldn't look at Penny his regular pasty complexion was paler than its norm with tears running down into his turtle neck. He managed to choke out "I'm sorry" and "Thank you for my job", then that was it. He kept his eyes down and wouldn't say another word.

Dr. Siebert I have Drs. Cooper and Koothrapali's assurances that they will abide the non-discloser clause and the rest of the terms we've discussed. I would at this time ask for a six week sabbatical for both Doctors and your permission to leave this place immediately.

"All in favor" Dr. Siebert looked around and then everyone said "Aye" for each motion, including the sarcastic Leonard.

"Thank you everybody! We'll be in touch, I'll gather up Sheldon and leave you to it" and with a frosty smile Penny walked out and left them to it.


	10. Chapter 10

MPOV&PPOV

Sherralynn Lee watched as her grandson's eyes flutter shut and his face smoothed out. Her tea was having it's desired effect. The moment she saw him, she knew he wasn't far from having his version of a meltdown. The desperate look in his eyes when he first caught sight of her nearly broke her heart; he looked like he'd been hit by the very lightening that he'd been terrified of all his life. Could this be more serious than what Penny had led her to believe? Sheldon hadn't lost his grip on his stoic self-possession since he left for Germany at the tender age of fourteen.

He had had tears partially frozen on his face. Though passed out, the man had a fine tremor running through his hands, even dosed with a liberal amount of her special tea. There was a certain ingredient in Meemaw's concoction; homemade Absinthe made from the Artemisia shrub from one of her extensive herb gardens. It worked on Sheldon every time.

"You weren't kidding when you said you knew exactly how to handle him" came Penny's quiet voice as she entered the back cabin of the plane.

"This is more than Leonard and false data, Penny. I've haven't seen him this discombobulated since his brother George locked him in the crawl space under the back of the house for two hours when he was six."

"His brother did what? Penny gasped.

"I'm sure that we'll have plenty of time to discuss my Moonpie's past. What I want to know and what you are going to tell me is why my grandson is in such a state. There's got to more than what I've been told going on here. I want answers young lady, and I aim to be getting to the bottom of this right now!

"Alright Mrs. Lee, but could we move to one of the other cabins, He may be unconscious but there are things I'll have to tell you and I'd rather he was awake instead of his Vulcan hearing picking it up in pieces subconsciously."

Three doors down and across from where Sheldon lay, Penny gestured for Mrs. Lee to sit. She hesitated before deciding to take the seat opposite the older women. She wanted to see her face, to read those somehow very familiar eyes. The empath in her sought to analyze Meemaw emotions, the women in her was seeking approval, and if she was going to spill the beans Penny thought it best to give her what little space was allowed in the suddenly cramped feeling cabin.

Well, she thought sinking down in the chair, here goes …..everything.

"Ask me anything." And then under her breath "In for a penny in for a pound."

"Young Lady, I'll thank you not to sass me! Now, what exactly are you to my grandson that you'd move heaven and earth, to get to him in his hour of need?" Her kind eyes made Penny sink ever deeper in her seat.

Forgetting any social graces Penny drew her knees to her chest and answered quietly, "I love him, I'd do a hell of lot more than this if I had to, I'm not trying to sass you Mrs. Lee…."

"Meemaw, child, it's Meemaw. I want to hug you but I get the feeling you'd bolt"

"Hold on to that thought, you might change your mind after a bit." Penny said rather sadly.

"Does Sheldon know that you're in love with him?"

"Not yet, but I won't be able to hide it from him now, and from what I felt from him earlier he's going to need me"

"But why is the question? How did he get in such straits in the first place? I know he reacts rather extremely to surprises, but there is always some rationale. This kind of reaction has to have built up over more time than the six weeks he spent here. None of his letters home ever alluded to a hint of this."

"Wow, you really do know him that well…"

"Honey, I've watched over him his whole life; the question is" Meemaw said holding up a long boney finger and tapping her chin "how can you know him as well as I do?

"Well…. There a few things I have to tell you. I'm very much like Sheldon, I have an eidetic memory and like Sheldon, I can't forget anything. I can remember every facet of every moment of my life. "I don't know my IQ and I don't care."

"He would have written me if he found someone like him….." The older women trailed off. Meemaw found herself once again assessing the hesitant Penny.

"No, he doesn't know yet, you're the first person I've ever told any of this to.

Then there's the other thing, I'll have to show you something and by then you may have different questions. Unlike Sheldon, I can lie and I've been lying to my friends for years now. Not with malice but for a sort of self-preservation." Penny's eyes pleaded with Meemaw to understand, "You see I've never admitted this to anyone, not even my own family and I need your help to help Sheldon…..…. there is another way Sheldon and I are alike…..I was pretty sure before now but, I'm definite now…"

Up until then Penny had been wearing Isotoners, nothing to notice there, it had been rather cold where she'd been.

"I know that Sheldon is like me, because of you! The whole room just filled with his love for you I could feel it from outside the plane"

"Well I know that my Moonpie loves me….."

"No…. Everyone felt Sheldon's love for you and the relief he felt in your presence." Taking the literal gloves off, slowly she reached for Sherralynn and gently asked for a hand by holding out her own. "May I show you something?" '_How to take this next step' _Penny wondered,"Every one of the crew felt it, both the men and the women felt it and they had tears on their cheeks and were smiling. I'm sure they are putting it down to everyone loves their grandmothers, but see…." Gently placing her palm in the older woman's bigger hand Penny let her relief pulse in her palm, "I can feel …." She took a deep breath in before starting over again, "I am empathic. I can feel the emotions of those around me, I can also let others feel what I'm feeling" Penny then let her growing affection radiate into Sheldon's grandmother. "Sheldon is the only other person I've met that can broadcast his emotion so that others can feel it as if it were their own."

Sherralynn sat there listening and feeling. The warmth blossomed in her chest while the hint of a smile graced her face. Penny touched her with only a fraction of her regard; this wasn't something she made a habit of. According to anything she had ever read on this, from science to science fiction, witchcraft to just plain speculations online: don't burn out the non-psychic. So Penny was going light here.

"I've been calming him for two years, I didn't realize he might have depended on it; I've never felt this way over anyone before. I'd never contemplated being away from him so when this expedition came up I didn't know to be worried. He was going in the company of his friends I thought since they were his anchor way before I got here he'd be okay, so it wasn't until I received the letter from Raj telling me about that can opener crap and then about his physical changes that I figured it might be too much without me"

Penny had been holding Meemaw's hand as she relived her emotions at what Raj's letter had revealed. Sherralynn couldn't help being brought along for the emotional ride pulsing along her skin.

Disengaging her hand from the Penny's, Sheldon's grandmother sat back with a deep sigh. The distraught feeling of failing Sheldon dissipated as soon as they were no longer touching. '_The poor dear,"' _She thought_,' to have this all on her young shoulders."_

"Well, don't that beat all" Sherralynn laughed which made Penny jump in surprise. Reaching forward and grabbing Penny's hands in her own she quickly asked "How long have you loved my grandson?"

Just the question evokes the answer as it pulsed through Penny and Sherralynn…

'_Penny remembers the exact moment she realized that she was in love with Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D. and Sc.D., Penelope believes in Luck and thanked whatever Deity out there when she waited on Leonard Nimoy at the Cheesecake Factory._

_She thought she had had a good idea of how much "The Napkin", would thrill Sheldon. Man, did she underestimate 'that whole sitch'; never was she so happily surprised. The simple joy that emanated from him warmed her like the sun but when he awkwardly put his arms around her and brushed his cheek lightly past hers in that hug; her empathy reached into him through that ephemeral touch and truly tasted Sheldon for the first time._

_To Leonard it just looked like 'bot boy' giving Penny an ungainly goofy hug. To Penny, the circle of Sheldon's arms was a vortex of emotions and information; through the lightest of touches she found a skin hunger that matched her own. The scent of him, in that close proximity, made her knees feel weak. Through his touch and his sudden yet silent emotive burst Penny found that Sheldon was as curious of Penny as she was of him and that he was fond of her and been hiding his attraction for to her. In moments she went from curious about Sheldon to in love with Sheldon all the while funneling soothing waves of her affection to calm his being overwrought at the display of emotions, that the gift and touching Penny brought on._

_In that ninety second hug Penny learned more about Sheldon than she had in the prior two years. Sheldon aura was as alive, as Penny's own, she could feel it, and his emotions were just as deep. There in his arms, Penny found she wasn't the only one anymore. His genuine joy had burst past his normally formidable shields and she had followed that joy back through to the core of him. Sheldon was an empath, and he didn't know it. Why he was unable to reach out past himself became her need to understand. Sheldon cared for Penny, it was there in his touch but this feeling had bitter edge to it.'_

"Oh Dear Lord" gasped Sheldon's grandmother. Letting go abruptly she started to fan her face with both hands. When Penny looked up she was surprised to see Meemaw blushing.

"Hoo Child, I haven't felt anything like that since my beloved George passed away."

"Please don't ever do that again….

"Settle your tail feathers, you said you could lie; well I wanted the truth of that and I got it. I had to know you weren't lying about your intentions for my grandson."

"You're incredible" Penny moved sit next to Meemaw and hugged her.

"You're the first person I've ever shared this with. You can't tell anyone about it. If anyone found out about me all they'd have to do is grab someone I love and I could be used to do terrible things. It's the same reason I've got to be here with Sheldon until he comes to grip with all this craziness. Try and imagine what might happen to those around him if he loses his temper before I can tell him about all this. I've got to get him someplace isolated where we can talk and I can show him what I've learned so far"

"Alright Darlin, you've got my word, now Sweetheart if I were you I'd get in there and stay by his side. Have you got a place in mind to hole up in?

"There's a farm I just bought outside Hammond New York, lock, stock and barrel. It will be stocked, the wall are two feet thick and the nearest neighbor is a mile in every direction. I'm hoping it's isolated enough. The hospital is half an hour drive."

"You bought a farm in New York? When, with what?"

"I didn't lie; I just didn't say anything….. My family is fairly well off; my grandfather left each of his grand kids a rather large sum of money to be given access to on their twenty first birthdays. I bought the farm, I moved Rajesh into my apartment and I was hoping you'd stay at Sheldon's apartment. I'm hoping I'll be moving in with him when we get back but once Sheldon knows everything I won't be making anymore decisions about his life without of his permission." Penny fervently declared.

By now Meemaw was petting her hair; she didn't need to be an empath to feel the maternal acceptance the elder exuded. Kissing Penny's hair Meemaw's mind was made up.

"No problem honey, I'll make arrangements with Missy to keep an eye on my place 'til I get back. You take Sheldon and present your case. He's a smart man" she couldn't help grinning at that; "I'm sure he'll see reason, heh heh"

Penny was already half out the door when Meemaw called after her "That 'tea' won't keep him down for long; you better get in there, and keep him calm."


	11. Chapter 11

SPOV

Sheldon quickly dove down through the levels of consciousness in order to achieve the deepest level of Kholinar. Quiescent though his body may have appeared, Sheldon's internal dialogue and correlation of algorithms and theorems had only submerged into a theta state where he could digest and assimilate the barrage of unanticipated events that had recently plagued him. Though most of his great intellect was focused inward, there was still part of his awareness that kept tabs on his surroundings. Several times, since his Meemaw had dosed him with her "Tea" he roused enough, while still not becoming conscious; Sheldon was quite able to note the comings and goings of his Meemaw, Penny, and even twice by Dr. Gablehauser. He was aware when the plane landed and when he was moved from plane to a waiting SUV to another warm bed. His trust in his Meemaw and Penny afforded him the time and quiet he needed to compose himself mentally as well as physically.

When Penny had come back to take Koothrapali and himself to the waiting plane, she had not tucked herself under his arm as she had done upon first seeing him. The friendly air that floated about her encompassed all around and yet she seemed more reserved. She squeezed his mittened hand in her gloved one; she didn't make eye contact like she had in his room earlier. These mixed signals on his already taxed psyche had him near to cracking, that being so, he couldn't fathom why he wasn't more reactive.

Upon reaching the jet his relief was evident to all when he swept his Meemaw up in a bear hug. The same loving eyes and soothing voice that had comforted and defended him as a child from family and foes stood fast for him now.

Meemaw had been the one to observe that his intellect was vastly higher than his siblings and pushed for his testing. When Sheldon had blown through the most grueling of intellectual tests, the doctors had had to confess that they possessed no examination to accurately measure Sheldon's IQ. It was Meemaw that pushed for the superior education that he would need to reach his full potential and then found the funding to afford it. Whenever he doubted, she set him straight; whenever he was unsure of his next step, she lovingly enlightened him with questions he already knew the answers too. Never once had she failed to champion his cause. No matter how large his intellect grew or how many other intellectuals he met, Sheldon maintained that his Meemaw was the smartest, strongest and most loving person he knew.

Sheldon was aware of the absinthe in Meemaw's Special Tea, he had known for years about the alcohol in it. Yet, his trust in her remained absolute, for at no time in his life had she ever misguided him. It was this unadulterated trust that accounted for her ability to crisscross freely over and through any and all barriers that Sheldon had set up to keep the rest of the world at bay. He granted his own mother only a limited indulgence, considering that her evangelicalism was more important to her than anything including his sibling or him. Sheldon held no illusions on that score.

While time passed for everyone else, it had ceased for Sheldon. While deep in Kholinar he had sifted through the events of the past few days. His eidetic memory produced different scenes for him to dissect and analyze as was his wont when events where so far outside his experience. Some painful details were apparent; 1) Hofstadter was not the friend he thought him and had betrayed him. 2) Wolowitz had as usual followed Leonard's cue. (Not so surprising but still painful). 3) Sheldon's monopole experiments would be delayed yet another year and therefore his path to the Nobel Prize were also delayed.

Those three facts, though painful, were discernible; Leonard Hofstadter and Howard Wolowitz were both jealous of Sheldon but even more so they hated themselves. Their cruel actions that had temporarily derailed his quest for the Nobel were due to the lack of potential they felt in themselves. He spent those recent hours dissecting the various interactions he had with Leonard and Howard from day one; their betrayal now seemed inevitable. His eidetic memory replayed all the sly remarks and insults he had not wanted to pick up on at the time of each occurrence. The emotions that came with each realization are why he practiced the Vulcan art of Kholinar. As he filed away these dissected experiences, his focus increasingly shifted to thoughts of Penny. Normally after so much negative stimuli in such a limited amount of time Sheldon would have been mentally shoring up any cracks in his emotional grid. It wasn't that Sheldon had no feelings; quite the opposite, it was that his feelings ran so deep. Sheldon would normally be seeing signs of mental fatigue and in fact, cracks in his emotional shielding had been making an appearance just before the fateful Vid-link, but were now almost imperceptible. As he went over the mental defenses he employed to keep himself from going mad and disappearing into the accumulated knowledge in his cranium; he found there was hardly any shoring up to do. The thought led him to wonder why that was. Critical thinking had him arriving at the fact that he started feeling better just before he found out Penny was at the station.

It wasn't that he couldn't intellectualize how Penny got there; the mechanics were not in question. How and why had she done it? Penny had not only shown up at the Artic Station, but she had engendered the President of Cal Tech along with the full Board of Directors to rescue Sheldon's career and save the university's scholastic face in the scientific community before it could become an issue. That fact alone raised more questions for Sheldon than he had the data for. Then as if that herculean feat was not enough, she had managed to not only have herself flown to his side but also his precious Meemaw **and** in the unofficial company of The Royal Canadian Air Force!

These were not actions that would be associated to a waitress with big screen aspirations. He doubted that even his beloved Meemaw could have orchestrated such a rescue mission. Sheldon was under no illusions, he was well aware how stressed he was. The lex talionis she had orchestrated for Leonard and Howard was in his mind a justified animus, but this led to even more speculations. While the scientist in Sheldon pondered the many questions still unanswered; The Homo Novus male was eager to re-establish his reunion with Penny. His body was eager to rise up into consciousness and engage Penny in a most primal way. These new feelings were hardly under control and that actualization was the most alarming. Only Kholinar kept the animal mind tethered.

Even now he was swimming in her delectable scent. He felt the warmth of her as she directed his placement in the middle of a bed he'd never been in before. She even removed his shoes and tucked a light blanket in around him just the way he was accustomed too. Then to his somnolent astonishment she crawled up next to him and draped an arm lightly across his chest and whispered in his ear.

"I know you're almost awake and I'm sure you can hear me. I'm not trying to invade your space but I think I need a little nap, it's been sixty two hours since I last slept baby and I'm starting to feel a little out of it. Wake me when you're ready." Then he felt her lips lightly on his cheek before he felt her lay her head down.

Sheldon had been trying to control this emerging physical instinct for months and now Penny's light kiss damn near tore down what tenuous grip he had achieved. He had dubbed this new side of himself as his 'animal mind'; this side of him had amplified as his body had enlarged and augmented itself. The animal mind was nowhere near integrated with the rest of his persona but he had established that his sexuality and the unfamiliar urges were fixated on Penny. No other woman had called forth this response in him, not even remotely. Experiments in his twenty first year, had left him unimpressed and were abandoned as it took time he could be spending on theoretical physics.

He had always had to be in control of himself and as much of his environment as others would concede to. The more one is in control the less possibility of being caught off guard and injured (emotionally or physically). His veridical attention to details and scrupulous adherence to his routines had sufficed right up until Penny.

'_At first he thought of her as distraction from his Nobel curriculum, with her constant unheralded entrances into his apartment with her banal chatter and her unwarranted touching. It took the genius several weeks to find he actually looked forward to the charged atmosphere and mini wars in which he wasn't always the victor. After the first year of her living across the hall he allowed himself to admit that he had become fond of her, discovered that she had become integral to his daily patterns. It was this last year though after exhaustive self-examination Sheldon realized that he was completely enamored of the green eyed beauty. Not that there was anything he would do about it, he was grateful for just her being his dearest friend.' _Sheldon couldn't help but secretly believe what everyone else said, that he was broken; he knew that his inability to correctly interpret his or other's emotion was a deficit.He knew that his extreme reactions and his asocial behavior weren't going to attract a mate let alone someone as vibrant as Penny._ 'Plus, what woman wants to keep running to her mate's rescue, from spiders in the tub to academic assassination?'_ So he decided not to pursue a mate, he had science and the Nobel Prize to pursue that would suffice. Then came Penny!

'_Penny deserves someone who is as loving and good natured as herself. But Good Lord, I would give up the Nobel Prize to have her look at me again and call me 'baby' like she just had. When I wake her for our talk I'll have to inquire as to the change in her normal endearments.'_

Sheldon took another hour to struggle with the sensation of her lips on his cheek and the change of blood flow to his animal mind. _'I will not lose my control over my body' I will not rush, I will take my time, I am in control of my body', _became Sheldon's mantra_. _When he finally opened his eyes, he rolled over on his side and watched the sleeping beauty curled up next to him in his bed. _'Why is she in bed with me surely this place has another bedroom? She must still be worried about me' _Sheldon surmised. _'And doesn't that just make me love her even more'_. Sheldon felt saddened anew when he thought how he had no chance in hell with Penny. The animal mind on the other hand had also awaken and reached through Sheldon with three of his senses to partially free it. Sheldon was barely aware that he was gently brushing a lock of her hair lightly across his lips, inhaling her cherry blossom and almond shampoo, mixed with her own warm scent while he watched her sleep. For another hour his body alternated between Sheldon's intellect and bewilderment in his reaction to Penny.

When she burrowed tighter into his side Sheldon didn't fight when his arms closed around her and pulled her exhausted form onto his chest. With her situated thus, the animal mind could see that she was indeed fatigued which curbed its hunger for her. As much as he wanted to believe that she was here for more than friendship, the scientist refused to jump to conclusion even though the data was starting to add up.

"But why though?" he whispered.

"Because I love you, Moonpie" came the sleepy reply.

**Sorry it took this so long to get this Chapter out. The next chapter should appease those of you waiting on Penny's confession and Sheldon's reaction will be out by this Friday. Again thank you all for your kind words and helpful points of view!**

**PS I still own nothing of TBBT but I do love the Characters and am just borrowing them for a little AU and a whole lot of OOC.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ch.12**

**PSPOV**

"But why though?" he whispered.

"Because I love you, Moonpie" came the sleepy reply.

Penny stretched out and rolled, so that she lay on his chest where he pulled her but still could rest her chin on her crossed arms and look at him as she spoke.

"I thought you might have figured that out through Kholinar by now." She smiled. Penny realized that if she didn't get up they wouldn't talk and she didn't want sex clouding the talk they had to have. She loved him too much to risk losing him over not thinking it out first. Penny knew in his right mind Sheldon would want all the facts. What Penny didn't account for was Sheldon's ideas on what questions he wanted answered first. She was rising up off of his chest when his arms crushed her back into him. She could feel the strength and hardening length of him and it took a lot not to reach down between them and grip him through his Chinos.

"What do you know of Kholinar?" he gasped. He felt how his sudden hard on pressed into her pubic bone and across her abdomen; the light weight and heat of her was deliciously inviting (the animal mind took instant notice).

"Sweetheart, I have found your use of the Vulcan art of Kholinar quite inspiring I have even tried to adopt the discipline myself" The giggle in her voice was evident for even Sheldon to be aware of.

The waves of hope and lust that were coming off Sheldon filled Penny with joy and it was all she could do not to just push the answers he needed to the wayside and start to nibble, lick and kiss her way along his throat to claim his lips. Within the confines of Sheldon's powerful new physique Penny's empathic concupiscence reached out past her waning shields, but this time bathed both of them in her long burning passion.

**(((Sheldon)))**

"**Holy God!"** Sheldon moaned as he rolled them over on the bed, pulling her up to meld his lips with hers. Burying his hands in her hair, he held her head immobile as he very deliberately with eyes open devoured her mouth. The line between their bodies heated towards a fever pitch; the animal mind exulted. Pulsing waves of hunger and longing rose up to answer Penny's empathic broadcast.

Her hips had bucked up into him in reaction to his tongue thrust deep in her mouth, her nails dug into his back through his shirts. Her left leg slowly curled up along his side pressing her foot into his buttock, straining to be closer to him. She reveled in his masculine strength as the weight of him pressed her into the mattress, still it was in no way close enough.

The moment Sheldon's lips had descended to Penny's, the animal mind roared through his consciousness scattering thoughts and intentions. Rolling in her scent like a great cat in the interior of the scientist mind, Sheldon left her lips to graze his teeth along her neck where he had to hold back the need to bite her with the an untamed passion he'd never felt before.

Penny gasped in a shuddering breath of disappointment when Sheldon released her lips. Hearing her, he pulled back with the sudden fear that he may have hurt or crushed her. What he saw as looked down into Penny's face made all questions irrelevant. Her love and lust for him called out to and then entwined with his own ardor. How could it feel this good with all their clothes still on?

Penny put a trembling hand to Sheldon's chest and tried to speak, "Baby…" she stammered and thought _'__**God I want you**__!' _

"I want you also, Penny" Sheldon answered as he gazed down at her with lust. The animal mind paced behind Sheldon's eyes as he watched Penny's demeanor switch from passion to astonishment. He rolled them onto their sides to catch their breath.

'_Wait…wait…..' _she thought, trying not to panic, Penny spoke quietly but firmly. "Sheldon, baby? We need to take a minute….. I need to think…. I really want where this is going Shel, you can feel I do, but I have to tell you about this and I have to do it before we go any further.

"However you need me Penny, I owe you so much already." They both groaned as they untangled their legs to sit up.

"No Moonpie, you don't owe me anything, I've learned so much from you and I do love you so very much, that I don't have the words…." Getting up Penny walked across the bedroom and dragged a chair over to where Sheldon semi-patiently sat, at the edge of the bed.

"Sheldon I'm not what you think I am….." She began, but was interrupted.

"Penelope, you've always been there for me since we met …."Sheldon said.

"Let me try this again….. Sheldon, honey I know this sounds silly but ask me a question about Physics some question you might ask your smartest student for a pop quiz….."

"Really Penny…..I don't know what that could possibly…..

"Just do it Please, Shel I'll show you where I'm going with this, I promised you, remember?

"Okay, what is a normal double beta decay? Sheldon asked her the question off the top his head so to speak.

Penny took a deep breath while staring deeply into Sheldon's eye, she answered him. "It could be when two neutrons in an unstable atomic nucleus turn into two protons; two electrons and two antineutrinos—the antimatter counterparts of neutrinos—are emitted in the process, or as has been recently postulated, that two neutrons could also decay into two protons by emitting two electrons without producing any antineutrinos. A neutrino would inevitably have produced in a single beta decay; the two neutrinos that are produced in a neutrino less double beta decay must somehow cancel each other out, but for that to happen, a neutrino must be its own antiparticle, allowing one of the two neutrinos to act as an antineutrino and annihilate the other neutrino. That a neutrino can be its own antiparticle is not predicted by the Standard Model. If it could be observed, it would be a remarkable and successful theory that describes how all elementary particles behave and interact."

She bit her lip then, as she watched his shocked countenance. "I've not been very forthcoming about myself, Moonpie"

"How did you know that, Penny?" The scientist was back and curious; though she could still feel his desire for her, she could also feel the added emotion of curiosity. He wasn't angry. '_So far so good_.' she thought behind a light shield. The shielding rose with the stress of exposing her secret to him.

"I read it off the June issue on the Cal Tech site "Physicists Close in on a Rare Particle-Decay Process" by Marcus Woo. I paraphrased it of course but I know that's the gist of topic"

"But Penny, why hide how intelligent you are? There's nothing shameful in being smart, you didn't have to hide studying Physics…."

"No, Sheldon there's more…. Baby, just a few more minutes…I can also remember every moment of everyday of my life, except where you remember the day you were weaned, I can remember my birth. I know that you remember this past Saturnalia when I gave you the napkin with Mr. Nimoy's DNA on it…."

"Penny, why hide that…. weaned? Saturnalia...

"Because this still isn't all of it, there's more than having an eidetic memory or being highly intelligent and just now you felt it …. With you there's even more….. More now than I'm sure what to do about and I need you to help me figure it out before we go much further with…this." She waved her hand between the two of them.

Reaching for her hand, Sheldon said, "Well then tell me Penny, you can tell me anything…..I know that you're not trying to hurt me, even I can see your getting upset."

Penny scooted back in the chair and put her hands under her thighs. "You sit there and I'll sit here as a matter of fact let's just go downstairs to the kitchen and I'll make us some Chai and I'll get on with the rest of this reveal."

"May I ask some simple questions, easy ones? Like where exactly are we? Sheldon asked with a smile as he followed her pert derriere out of the bedroom and down the cast iron spiral staircase into a quaint country kitchen.

"We're about twenty five minutes Northeast of Hammond, New York, about thirty minutes from Watertown. There's a well-established Amish community all around us" she explained as she put the kettle on the stove to boil. "The farms around here are fairly good size this property came with five hundred and twenty two acres. The house was built in 1857."

"Whose place is it, Dr. Gablehauser's?"

"No…. umm….. It's mine; I just signed on the dotted line as you were being brought in."

"Yours… Penny? Really? How can that be?"

"Well one of the other things I didn't let anyone in on is the fact that my family is very.… Well actually we are very wealthy. My family has either started, promoted or has a hand in all things concerning farms, ranches, organic self-sustaining agriculture businesses, cattle, livestock. You name it, if it's somehow connected with Environmental Stewardship or Natural Animal Husbandry, my people contributed to it. I have wanted to tell you all of this before now; I couldn't believe I found another like myself. You obviously realize that some ditzy blond didn't pull all this off. I'm sorry baby that I didn't come clean before but you'll understand fully in a minute" and at that the kettle whistled shrilly.

Her penitent eyes and soft words continued as she made their tea. "I am an empath Sheldon, I read others by feeling their emotions, and I can transfer emotion and broadcast feelings into….. So far…. any living thing I've come in contact with. I can calm a fight or start one. I have been calming your depressions over your perceived failures, and the squawks that flared up in that now defunct social group we were a part of."

"What else do you know about me Penelope? " Sheldon said somberly.

With a gentle smile she replied, "Your facial tics and OCD behavior is as manufactured as your fashion choices, you actually feel fine in jeans and monochrome colors. You have an interesting way with dealing with emotions by trying to bury them…. I think … I'm not exactly sure of your exact methodology, but then I've never delved too deep for fear of overstepping another Empath's boundaries and let's face it, you keep up some heavy armament. You're very calculated and self-contained, and with all your bravado on genius you are afraid you are broken…and….well… You love me and have loved me for close to a year now."

'_I do not need to be reminded of this past year with my hungering longing for you, Penny, the animal minds started to pace…. she's known that I've had these feelings all this time… what an utter coward she must find me. _As his chagrin rises_, _he is enveloped with warmth._ "Ah… so this is her deep regard for me except this time, there is an undercurrent of hesitant joy' _Sheldon slowly smiled at Penny then asked, "Why do you name me Empath as well?"

"Because, you are, I know you saw the reaction of those people on the plane, when you beheld your grandmother. That was you, all you, broadcasting your emotion onto the crew and the rest I felt you outside the plane, you were overwrought and your innate control slipped and your emotions flowed over everyone. Could you imagine what might have happened had you lost control of your temper instead? I know you are already extrapolating the possible outcomes."

As Sheldon listened to Penny, the puzzle pieces began to fall into place. _The paradigm has coalesced into perfect Harmony… still Empathy seems a stretch; he couldn't fault her train of thought though… Not that I don't believe her, I trust her, but she could be mistaken…_

"I can feel your doubt, Moonpie….. But listen to me; you answered me upstairs when I thought 'God I want you'… but baby I thought that, I didn't say it out loud. Now that **is** a new one on me." Pointing at herself, "I've been learning my abilities, all my life with no true guide. There are no resources to reference from; there are no other true Empaths to learn from. Every day is an experiment and I'm my only expert. What happened upstairs….. Well that was an added element… telepathy…

"I heard you… felt you… call me… like a bell resonating from within…. before the vid-link and again back in my room at the station and just now each time I have…. not to be crass… but… it's all I can do not to soil myself with seminal fluids." Sheldon sighed.

"Well, I've never been with another Empath, have you? She asked sardonically, "And everything I've ever read leads me to believe we should err on the side of caution. Could two empaths form a telepathic bond….? We don't want to burn each other out…"

Sheldon stood up and moved around the table to stand in front Penny. "Since when does caution guide your actions?" He tried to tease.

"Every day." came her tired reply." Even more so now, because there is you! I can't afford to make a mistake… I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you and if it was a miscalculation on my part…. Since when do you throw caution to the wind?"

Leaning forward, Sheldon laid a kiss on Penny's forehead. "I gather from your reticence, that you expect me to have a host of negative reactions, I can assure you, though I am not as emotionally diverse as you are, I am not so inept that I cannot understand your reasoning."

"I have spent most of my life refraining from touch…. The sensations are too intense for my comfort, heat and cold even more so. I wear two shirts because my skin is super sensitive, my sense of touch is just as overly heightened as my so-called Vulcan hearing. But you came along and there was no pain. **You** touched me and instead of pain your touch was and is more than an anodyne, it is pure pleasure. I have spent the past six weeks missing your touch and dreaming of you in my arms. I don't know what is happening to me physically or why I'm finding it harder to suppress my emotions, it may have to do with the high levels of testosterone in my blood work…." Taking her cup out of her hands he put it on the table, and then pulled her back into his embrace. "There are some things that I am sure of…. I know that I love you… that I want you… More than I ever wanted… or want the Nobel Prize…. I do know that I don't want to talk anymore…. I have to touch you … I need to kiss you…" '_To be in you,' the animal mind wants his mate; he can sense her hunger….._

Penny watched the animal mind stare out of Sheldon's eyes, "I've known for ten months and twenty seven days that I love you, I felt I had no hope, that you would care this much for me, and now…. I would have to be blind after all this…. not to see that you do indeed return my regard…. You may be a genius… How is that a detriment? You have wealth, so? You know how little I care on that score. You have empathetic abilities; they are a part of you, like your golden hair and your beautiful smile….."

Penny felt his passion spike just before he turned her to face the table, "Or your luscious ass" He continued speaking as he placed his hands over hers on the table top and pressed his hips along the back of her. He spoke into her hair as he nipped at her shoulder "I love all of you, I trust you… Lord knows how much I want you….. Penny, feel me" (as he ground up against her) "you don't have to be empathic to know… How I hunger for you. You tell me I'm an Empath….. To feel your love while you're feeling mine," He bit her in the shoulder then growled "To have you as deep in me as I want to be in you has haunted my every dream…."

Penny's body clenched as she responded to his words, his hands gripping her hips and his very ardent arousal so evident on her backside. She lightly started to bounce her hips and bucked back into Sheldon, bouncing him back enough to do what she had wanted to do upstairs; she reached back between them and gripped his large hardened member through his pants with her hand. "Mm mm….. Hunger….. Yeah I get that," Penny was pushed up on the butcher block table from behind with him between her legs, one hand twisting her head around so he could taste her desire from her lips. The animal mind reached out through Sheldon and let Penny feel his burning need for her; they made out with their whole bodies, as she continued to rub his hardness through his pants. Only when he left her lips to lick, suck and bite along the side of her throat did she break away and desperately say, "Come with me." Then he was pulled down a hall by the front of his pants, to a master bedroom that had been prepared for her stay there.


	13. Chapter 13

SPPOV

They fell on the bed together, no finesse, just a tangle of searching hands and hungry mouths, a mating dance as old as the human race. Clothing was removed in haste as the impatient lovers raced to view the other naked. Sheldon pushed Penny on her back as he took a moment to view her in all her glory; his gaze tore from her kiss swollen lips to where her heavy breasts peaked with tightening nipples as his fingers tweaked them. Penny gasped as his fingers were replaced by his hot mouth and gentle teeth. His displaced fingers made their way down to her moist heated core. The feel of his long thick digits penetrating her wet sheath bowed Penny's back and pressed her head back into the pillows with the pleasure of his finger play.

The need to bury himself overwhelmed all his seductive intentions when his fingers were clenched tightly by Penny's wanting wetness. Penny felt his craving for her increase to match her own. No longer coherent, she reached out for Sheldon's uncircumcised staff and placed the head of him at her slick entrance. Slowly, inch by inch Sheldon worked his thick cock into her eager depth, until he was encased to the hilt. He would slowly slide out of her, leaving just the head inside and then thrust in again completely, savoring the way her vaginal contractions massaged and milked his invading member.

God he was so big... she felt so full… complete…. His weight pressing her down… his body driving in and out of her with such primal force. The sexual friction and emotional heat coming off him pushed her into multiple orgasms…. She'd never had multiples before….. The deeper he drove into her the more a pulsating sensation emanated from Penny until her body and his rang with it….. (((Sheldon)))… (((Oh God, Sheldon)))… (((Holy God, Sheldon)))…

Each wave of emotional and physical stimulation brought Sheldon closer to his own exquisite release… as he reached the point of no return, answering pulses emerged from Sheldon to entwine with hers…. (((Penny)))…. (((Penny)))…. (((Mine, Mine, Mine))).

Their release seemed unending, caught up in a loop of pleasure that left them quivering in each other's arms. The last conscious thought they had was to pull the covers over themselves.

**What must be taken into account with Homo Novus is that it's not just the superior intellect of the advanced sub-species but also the sophisticated physiology that sets it an evolutionary step above Homo sapiens. All five basic senses are optimally efficient. Basic anatomy from cell histology to nervous system is all improved upon the Homo sapiens physiology, so much so as to engender the next evolutionary step for mankind.**

**The heighten senses with double the nerve endings of their progenitors facilitates the empathic abilities of Homo novus. Touch enhances their abilities. Touching each other is a wealth of information exchanged on even synaptic levels. The physical strength and hand eye coordination in association with superior senses is a genetic necessity to house the Homo Novus grey matter.**

**Unique to the Homo Novus male is a secondary stage of Puberty whereas the female under goes but one. The first stage is at the relative 15 years of age with the second and final stage reaching maturity 15 years or so later. **

**At 30, Sheldon stands at the precipice of this stage. What is now understood years later is that the Homo Novus male does not go through this final stage of sexual maturity without the environmental and biological trigger, of the Homo Novus female.**

**The outward juvenescence of pre secondary pubescent homo Novus males can be but not limited to as follows: tall, lanky, with a runner's build and a symmetrical boyish face. The immature HN male's intellectual pursuits can be at odds with his emotional maturity. Temper tantrums and childishness can plague the HN male until reaching sexual maturity, even then emotional balance is not fully realized until pair bonding is achieved.**

**Post -Secondary Pubescent Homo Novus males put twenty or more pounds of muscle on their frames, there is also masculinization of boyish features and enlargement of male genitalia. The physical onset of this secondary puberty is preceded by the enlargement of the vomeronasal organ; located in the nasal cavity, governing a range of genetically preprogrammed imperatives for mating, social ranking, maternal and territorial defense mechanisms, increases in pituitary and thyroidal activity for added muscularity, increase of bone mass and denser yet more elastic tendons and ligaments.**

**It is a known medical fact that the circumcised penis has 4000 erotogenous nerve endings and that the uncircumcised penis has up to 24,000 nerve endings with the foreskin which has close to 20,000 nerve endings. An uncut homo novus male has over 48,000 such nerves. The consensus being that this overabundance is desideratum for the perpetuation of this next step in human evolution. **

**The Homo Novus female's reproductive system is vastly augmented compared to Homo sapiens. The concentration of the nerve endings that lie close to the entrance of a Homo sapiens vagina (the lower third) provides pleasurable sensation during sexual activity when stimulated in a way that the particular female enjoys. However, the vaginal canal of Homo sapiens, as a whole has insufficient nerve endings for sexual stimulation and orgasm. This serves to impede pain associated with the birthing process. The outer one-third of the vagina, especially near the opening, contains nearly 90 percent of the vaginal erotogenous nerve endings and therefore is much more sensitive to touch than the inner two-thirds of the vaginal barrel."**

**The Homo Novus female has twice as many the arrays of nerve endings as her predecessors, and has conscious control over which nerves are active during childbirth.**

**The fibro muscular tubular tract that is her vaginal canal is lined with erotogenous nerve endings that facilitate in the pair bonding of the empathic Homo Novus, and is not found in Homo sapiens. These serve a plethora of functions from the pleasure of the female and deepening the bond of life mates to the determination of ovulation. HN female is self-ovulatory. Upon the initial initiation of sexual intercourse, between a Homo novus female and Homo Novus male, chemical and physiological changes are almost immediate. The erotogenous nerve endings in the vaginal walls interaction with the penile nerve endings engage in a synaptic symbiosis that is a substratum of their monogamous physiology. Each stroke gives and receives chemical and electrical information to each partner bathed in pleasure. The physical intimacy afforded by coitus is more than the enjoyable flush of hormonal chemistry and spasmodic muscles. The female may only procreate with her mate, whereas the male becomes so fixated on his female that he becomes unable to perform coitus with any other female. Sexual fixation on one's mate is absolute. Once bonded the pair share a telepathic bond. This telepathy seems to be distinct to the bonded pair and as of yet, it isn't known if the telepathy is directed outside of the pair.**

**There is also a physical manifestation of the empathetic pair bonding of Homo Novus; their eyes exhibit inclusions of their mate's eye color. The how and the why of such ocular alteration has yet to be determined but is not Heterochromia (the condition where one eye is a different color from the other or one eye is more than one color) and is exclusive to the bonded pair.  
**  
**The complex neural network of Homo Novus does more than receive and relay data to the brain and body. Homo Novus can project and direct emotion to all living entities. The range and scope of said ability has yet to be determined, so far it seems that any psi abilities are as select as the individual Homo Novus.**


	14. Chapter 14

There he lay and even as spent as he was Sheldon swum in a sea of their desire. Never had he ever experienced such a…a… his mind searched for the proper word to describe what being inside Penny did to him. _'She is beyond exquisite, she claimed me as she pulsated through me'; Little bits of her attaching to me like electrons attaching to another atom creating a new element' ._He had driven his need and seed deep into her and yet_ 'hadn't she done so also, for has she not planted herself deep within my psyche, my heart, my very soul?'_

It was when Sheldon's eidetic reverie alit on his sleeping lover that he was thrown back to the memory of her clenching around him as he buried himself in her, to the hilt, ferociously, over and over again. So intense was the body memory that he found himself abruptly bowed back into the mattress, hands grasping empty air as his semi turgid member instantly hardened…. '_What has that beguiling green eyed witch done to me_' and then Sheldon heard an answering moan from the near comatose form of Penny.

Memories suddenly flood Sheldon's mind, but these memories are from a different perspective; '_his hungry blue eyes, his scent intoxicating, his tongue fencing with hers, how his teeth felt grazing her throat biting the juncture of her neck and shoulder, How full to bursting… hungry again… Holy Shit these are Penny's memories!' _

'_She is sleeping and yet I feel her love and desire flowing through me, so warm and vibrant. It is the most curious sensation... To feel Penny____within me, her presence is in my mind, I can feel her within me! How can this be…? How can she answer my remembered desire in her sleep? I wonder what she'll say when she wakes.' _Sheldon softly smiled down at her_. There is nowhere I look with in myself that she has not intimately integrated herself…. She spoke of empathy but I think this is more than that… then again she did say that she'd been learning by experience and research… research and Penny…. that won't take long to get use to I always knew she was smarter than she let on. Her orthopraxic view will complement my orthodoxy quite nicely. The more of her I learn, the more in love I fall….not so improbable after all, what an utter fool I've been! How can one being make me feel so omnipotent and so infinitesimal at the same time? I do not ever have to wonder if she loves me…I can feel how much…..How can she love me?' _He began to fret, tears filling his eyes, years of lonely self-doubt and fear for his sanity arising to crash against his new found sanctuary.

For two years Penny had been tuned into Sheldon's emotional frequencies. Even now in her deepest theta state, she felt his worry rise and reached out with mind and hand to soothe him. Her sleepy comfort soothed his emotional agitation while her hand started to lightly rub his abdomen in lazy circles.

_'Is this real? Maybe I lost my considerable mind back in Alaska?' he thought._

_ 'Well this is new.' a thought interrupted. 'You're not crazy! I love you! It's as simple and as complicated as that' _Penny thought smugly_. 'Your all mine now Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper' _Then Penny giggled out loud and said "Meemaw said so"

Sheldon was suddenly viewing Penny's recollection of how his his grandmother's face looked down into hers/his _"oh Penny Darlin' you have no idea how long I've waited for you and now you're here and better than I could have hoped for! Thank The Good Lord! _Meemaw patted the SUV door, after hugging Penny she said '_He's all yours now I'll expect a call from you in a couple of days'._

Penny stretched, then crawled up Sheldon so she could kiss him on the lips beforethinking to him, _'So what's you're gist on this, you sexy physicist?' _She began to rub her wet silky warmth over his still very turgid arousal '_I want you' _echoed in his mind.

Sheldon blushed at her apparent sincerity_ 'Let us say for the moment that I haven't formed a hypothesis and with you perched so enticingly atop me I doubt I'll come to one anytime soon as I have such hunger upon me that it will take much' _he flipped them over _'…to satiate!_' and with that, he slowly centered himself within her body and her mind.

"I love you Penny" he said as he pushed deep into her core.

"I love you Penny" he said again pulling out 'til just the tip remained within her and then plunging back into her, his third "I love you Penny" came out in a growl of pleasure.

Penny hands made their way up his back as her legs wrapped his hips, urging him deeper. The length and width of him hit her in all the right ways as he muscled his way into her tight passage. Waves of her love and lust for him spilled into his mind as well as his body as her sheath spasmed tighter around his phallus.

'_Holy God, Penelope I…..' _He bit his pleasure into the side of her neck.

It was in this moment, that the culminations of several recent stress factors triggered the next stage of Homo Novus Evolution.

Penny's orgasm hit critical mass with Sheldon's bite. Her nails had been pulled into her palms so as not to rake out his back. This orgasm hit Penny and her hands putting her nails through her palms. The tightness of her vaginal walls gripped both Sheldon and Penny in a vice bordering on pain. Nerves that had come to fruition on the couple's first joining were fully now matured and functioning in optimal capacity, taking in all physical information, be it chemically, electrically and genetically, systematizing the first biological Pair Bonding of any of the Homo genus classification.

The mutual orgasm snapped their eyes shut as their bodies were thrown into sybaritic paroxysms. Each muscle spasm brought flashes of words, scents, pictures of the past or present. The intensity had Sheldon trapped in the paradox where his body and mind fought both to stay buried in Penny and trying to get away at the same time. The rigor that claimed his body just before all his lights went out left a curious sensation in the occipital lobe of his brain.

Penny's experience and self-preservation flared at the onslaught of overwhelming emotions and audible thoughts not her own. Before she could even think to diffuse or strengthen her shields, all that was Sheldon slammed into Penny and then passed through her taking her into the abyss with him. Her last thought before she blacked out was _"He truly is beautiful….."_

At precisely the same moment the bonded pair consummated their mating, an energy wave of love and desire emanated from Sheldon and Penny. Their release blew out in a concentric circumference of three thousand miles. Within that three thousand mile radius, every human that was sensitive or had extra sensory perceptions went lights out when the couple did. Not only humans, but animals also dropped into a stupor if not completely knocked out. Most of the North American continent and two thirds of the European nations that border the Atlantic Ocean were affected. Every electrical device began to flicker…. not go out …but flicker….. Cell phones, radios, TV, street lights …. All lights flickered for approximately 45 minutes.

_**I am back …. I'm not sure as to run with this development or to have them use their great intellects to cover their tracks from all the world governments….. What do you think?**_


End file.
